Synchronicity
by slexenskee
Summary: Naruto has come to realize that he is no more then Kyuubi as the demon is no more then a figurative aspect of his former self. The seal is broken, and Naruto is forced into the forefront of Konoha's shinobi ranks, under Captain Yamato's black ops team.
1. Down The Rabbit Hole

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**ci**__t_**y**

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**t **h **e **f **o **x

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- - - - - **a **_n _d- - - - - - -

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**t **h **e **b **o **y

_((…they stood side by side, a line stretching between them…))_

_((…yet they didn't know the other was there…))_

**N**aruto stared at the broken black linens that covered his stomach in what once resembled a spiral pattern. Its edged curled around in what used to be the great Shiki Fuuin, however now it looked more like a sharpie swirled by someone with their eyes closed. And the first thing the boy realized as he stared hazily at the seal's reflection in the mirror was that whatever happened last night to the seal could definitely not be good. It looked as if it had been hit by something and literally shattered into different pieces. The seal looked nothing like it did before.

He examined himself with his shirt up. "What in the hell-?

His alarm made its presence noticed, its ringing braking into the tense cobwebs of confusion laced over his head with its irritable noise.

POPO-CHIII-POPO-CHIII-CHA-CHA-CHA-CHA—

He scrambled out of the bathroom and nearly crashed into his bedside table as his fingers fumbled with the many buttons on his clock. The digital 9:00 that blinked in neon laced red letters as if they were literally his death blinking unholy eyes at him. Well, he supposed it would be if Sakura, Sasuke, _and _Kakashi were there before him-but it couldn't be that bad, right? Hell, Kakashi was late by hours everyday, so it shouldn't matter.

He felt his stomach curl into heavy knots, and he leaned over the table.

Naruto winced, holding a hand to the broken seal on his stomach.

Definitely not good. It hurt like something was gripping his stomach and pulling it around—

9:15

POPO-CHIII—

He slammed the red button again before it got too irritating. Did he just spend fifteen woozy minutes leaning over his desk when it felt more like a few seconds? He wondered if there was something wrong with his stomach-seriously wrong. Maybe it was only physical…he doubted his mental stability would affect his stomach.

Or worse…the beast inside it.

Naruto shook his head. He didn't want to think of that.

His stomach swirled again.

9:30

POPO—

Dammit.

He sprinted out the door with nothing but his orange pants and a black shirt, forgetting the jacket slung over his mussed bed sheets as he tumbled down the stairs in an attempt to be there before Kakashi was. Now, he wasn't so sure, one thing he was though, was that his sense of time was slipping out of his fingers and onto his floor somewhere. He'd have to pick it up, very, very, soon. Because it wouldn't do to become Kakashi.

The looming towers of his fate made its presence known by its vibrant red color. Not to mention the three people waiting for him.

Naruto glowered.

Kakashi was here before him.

"Naruto!! You're _late—_

"I must say," Kakashi chuckled. "I hadn't known I was such a role model."

No one laughed, but Kakashi continued sheepishly anyways.

"Care to tell us why, exactly, you are late?"

"Uh—well I…umm…" Naruto sputtered. "I—I got lost on the road of life."

"Really?" Kakashi rebuked, with an odd glint in his eye and scratching his chin. "I wonder why I didn't see you there…"

"I was going the other direction."

"It isn't a two-way street, Naruto-kun—

"Oh, enough!" Sakura screeched, pulling them apart. "Sensei, can we just _please_ train today? Please?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, it's why I'm here!"

Sakura jumped in joy, Sasuke nodding somewhere in the backdrop between rushing water, a red railing and shadows. Naruto, however, outside of his usual persona, was having a rather peculiar dilemma. Like this morning, and the many times as he raced over to his team's meeting point, his seal swirled again in an odd manner, a bit like it was stretching apart or… grating open.

It was an odd feeling, like he was an island and he was drifting into two, he saw the other side as he stood on the other, watching it float carelessly into a watery abyss—

"Naruto? Naruto? Naruto!"

He fell off his daze as Sakura stared at him, looking rather annoyed.

"C'mon!"

Actually, they were all staring at him, each with their own eyes.

"Naruto-kun," Kakashi began. "Are you alright?"

"I—

Naruto blinked, slowly, confusingly.

He wanted to say he was fine. He wanted to train. Wanted to banter with Sasuke again.

Oddly, those weren't the words out of his mouth.

"I think I'm a bit sick."

They stared with blank faces.

Naruto…sick? They were talking about Naruto…right? When everyone was struck down with the flu last year he was still standing waving sheepishly at everyone else as they moaned in pain and fever. Naruto, who brushed off lung punctures as flesh wound, and wouldn't notice a kunai lodged into his arm until they were half way to Konoha. Naruto, who ran around half naked when it was freezing rain to buy ramen because he had realized he was out.

Naruto…?

But Kakashi only nodded. "Well we can't have you trying to exert yourself and ending up in the hospital. Get some rest. Come back tomorrow and see if you're any better."

Naruto nodded, turning away slowly as silence elapsed the trio on the other side, a gray kind of fog that seemed heavy and thick.

"Well, in the meantime, Sakura and Sasuke, why don't you two train?"

"Sasuke-kun!!"

The other boy groaned, but Naruto was too far to see.

--

Naruto went home to an empty apartment, awash in gray undertones and the shutters mismatched so light seeped through the overturned ones, paneling the floor with speckled light. The kitchen was filled with ramen, and although there were other things in there, most was still, ramen. His room and just about his entire apartment wasn't very furnished, because he never saw the need too. There was a bed, and as thus, just about his entire necessities right there.

He had crossed the threshold to his room when he felt his stomach churn again. He tumbled to the floor, gripping the doorway with loose fingers in attempt to stabilize himself.

Closing his eyes, he tried breathing in and out slowly.

When he opened his eyes, it was already 2:37

"What the hell?!" Naruto couldn't help it.

What seemed like minutes, turned out to be a couple hours.

Naruto shook his alarm clock as if it would help, as if there was simply just some digital malfunctioning and the neon lights that made numbers were just flickering in different directions. There was nothing wrong with him, nothing. He didn't keep spacing out for what seemed a few seconds that actually turned to be a few hours, minutes…where was his head going??

"Maybe," He mumbled to himself, laying on his bed. "Maybe it'll go away soon."

Again, that strange sensation like something was tugging at him, pulling at his stomach and moving him in two different directions came again as he lie on his bed.

It was almost like he was surrounded in pastel hues of gray and blue, maybe water? Or fog? It was hard to tell. He saw himself—different, smile, hair, eyes—looking at him as they held up a hand, locking it with the others. And then, they drifted apart, nothing changing but the entwining of fingers—

POPO-CHIII-POPO-CHIII-CHA-CHA-CHA

He lurched forward, tumbling head first over his bed and onto the hard floor.

With a groan, Naruto picked himself in a lanky mess off the ground, spewing curses at his stupid alarm clock that he knew he should probably throw out soon because of its annoying tendencies to wake him up with aggravating noises though. His colorful thoughts were interrupted, however, when he gaped at the numbers that blinked at him owlishly amidst the loud chorus of whines.

"What…

…the…

…hell?"

10:45. AM.

His brain stopped functioning.

He brushed his teeth.

He pulled on pants (that weren't orange??)

He ate cereal and milk that was actually still good.

He didn't blink.

He didn't smile.

And he certainly wasn't going to look that the clock.

…He had taken a catnap that spanned for almost a day from 2 in the afternoon to 10 the next morning…

But, the one thing that was very out of his daily routine that came upon him as he quested to stop looking at the clock, was that he didn't go to training either. As much as he loved the blood, sweat and bruises, he didn't think he'd do very well in a fight right now. He'd just space and…and then where would he be?

It was like a very horrible lapse in judgment.

He leaned against his counter, after placing the milk in the sink behind him, washing away the little bits of Milk and O's into the bottom of his drainage tank, and had begun to massage his temples. When he opened his eyes, his vision kept focusing and unfocusing, like the curl of a cats paw. He couldn't keep it steady, pupils dilating in a steady dance as if someone's fingers zoomed with a camera.

Suddenly, he pitched forward.

He picked himself off, turned around to give himself a steady balance, and read the clock that innocently colored itself in neon blue lights on his microwave.

It had been around 10 AM or 11 AM, April, 17th. It was officially 6 AM, April 18th.

Oh god.

He placed himself on the couch warily.

There was a knock at the door.

He felt he didn't have the energy to cross the room and answer it. Luckily, Kakashi had already begun speaking.

"Naruto-kun?"

Kakashi-sensei.

"Can we come in?"

We?

He heard whispers from the other side of the door. Strange…he could never hear them before.

"Sure…" His voice was low, almost a whisper.

The door opened easily, Kakashi standing with book in hand, Sakura peering behind him, Sasuke off to the side, leaning on a wall and looking as if he didn't care whether or not Naruto was feeling good or not that day. Kakashi sauntered in, Sakura following him along with Sasuke as they peered around his very unfurnished apartment. There wasn't any litter on the floor, although there was a thin sheet of dust blanketing everything.

Naruto was curled on the couch, in a tee shirt and shorts, his eyes were rather blank, hands curled around his stomach as he fixated on the wall behind them with a gloomy look that matched the house.

"Are you feeling alright, Naruto-kun?"

He was about to say he was perfectly okay, but, something stopped him.

"I think…I'm just a little under the weather."

Kakashi raised a brow, but he said nothing to rebuke that. "I see, I hope you get better soon. We came to check and make sure your getting rest."

He looked over to his teammates owlishly, trying to grin at them but failing miserably.

"Oh sorry…" He looked at their features indifferently. "I'll try to get better so we can train."

"Yeah!" Sakura nodded in agreement, as they trudged out of his apartment with the same abruptness they had come in with.

When they left, Naruto sighed. His head hurt so badly that his vision was swimming like he was in a murky pool without goggles. Deciding that the bed was better than the couch, Naruto crawled off of it tentatively, taking baby steps into the other room. So far so good, past the threshold and—

—He never remembered hitting his bed.

The next time he woke up, a dark hue of orange lit up his bedroom, tinged with a nice fresco pink and accents of purple. And, in other words, dusk.

He didn't even want to look at the clock, but he did anyways.

7:47 PM, April 24.

Almost a week.

He tried to calm himself down, through a still begging for sleep mind, and a body that wouldn't comply-too tired-he tried. Breathing tactics that Kakashi had once suggested when trying to meditate, the exercises he did when trying to calm himself from the villager's rage.

None of it worked.

His body was just so exhausted, that even getting the blood pounding in his ears and his heart pumping seemed to drain him.

He ended up collapsing again on his bed, closing his eyes as his stomach turned in different directions.

--

Naruto woke up in cold sweat. This time, with determination etched onto his face, he marched straight out his door and down the street. Sometimes, the world would fuzz out, and the people on the street changed as if it were a screen, but he made it to the hospital. He was afraid though, looking at the looming glass doors of the hospital.

Would they think he was a monster?

Would they think he was Kyuubi?

He felt like there were voices in his head.

In the end, he ended up turning around and walking home. This wasn't going to work. They would think he was a monster, send him home. Worst case scenario, they'd think that with the fading seal he was Kyuubi, and end up kicking him out of the village.

He could see Sarutobi's face, shaking his head gravely as he pleaded with him to let him stay.

Kakashi not even bothering to look at him as he flipped a page in his book. And when he did, it was the hate filled stare that could only be directed to the Village's demon.

Sasuke and Sakura had moved on, talking with their new teammate. More than they ever would him.

Iruka didn't even stop to look at him as he brushed past him to his new class—and to a smiling blond boy without any whiskers that was starting the academy this year.

Naruto shook his head.

He couldn't go to the hospital.

--

It was morning again, and still, parts of his day seemed be spaced into oblivion when he felt tugs at his stomach.

After one tug-around six in the morning, which lasted till seven, he rushed to the bathroom to check the seal.

It was almost completely gone.

The shattered bits of it were turning to specks of black, nearly invisible to anything short of the trained eye. Its once intricate design that swirled from the center of his stomach outward was now nothing but dots, specks even, here and there with the occasional cropped line it an oddly curved shape. Sometimes you could see the faint Kanji that had once been so intricate and undecipherable now nothing more than faded gray like an old washable tattoo off a gum wrapper.

Nothing like its former glory.

"How did this happen?" He whispered to himself.

He had decided, after many minutes, that he couldn't think on an empty stomach and he should get some ramen—

It was sudden that he was jerked by something in his stomach that forced him into his knees.

His body flew back into the bathroom door, his mind crashed into a hard stone wall.

Naruto opened his eyes.

There were rusty bars the color of dried blood obscuring his vision of an unpleasant seen of pipes and sewage water. The drips echoed down the musty scented hallways, covered in a thick slime of disgusting green. It was odd, the hallway seemed different somehow, like his mindscape had been shifted. It wasn't the way it usually looked, usually that one pipe was to the left and the other to the right and—

—oh god.

He was inside Kyuubi's cage.

He blinked again and could see himself in his bathroom mirror, but it was a third person view.

His hair had an accented look of crimson to it, small wisps of red ocher blending gently with the stream of sunshine yellow blonde hair that sat unruly atop his head. His whiskers were more pronounced, not like jagged streaks running on his cheeks, but they were definitely darker. Did he seem a bit tanner? It might be the angle of which he saw himself. Certainly not by his two eyes, it was like he hovered a bit in front of himself.

And then, the eyes opened.

…

That was not him.

The once delphinium blue eyes like the line where ocean water met azure skies, had turned into a deep sunset of crimson and blood swirling around a knifed pupil.

He whispered only a word.

"Kyuubi."

The demon outside of the mindscape examined itself with an amused glint in its cat like eyes. They were even scarier than Orochimaru's (if Naruto had met him at this point he would have thought so) maybe because of the way they pierced through flesh and clothes, looking straight into your very soul with nothing more than a long stare. He grinned, the canines looking much sharper, nearly lowering into his bottom lip. They weren't as large as they were with a full transformation though.

"_Well,"_ The demon grinned. "_It seems we've switched."_

The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could catch them and shove them back in. "What are you going to do?"

Another feral grin. "_What should I do?"_

"Nothing."

"_Hmm," _The demon leaned back, a much more suave and elegant looking Naruto than before. "_I suppose I could start by killing off everything, and then I could go for a nice meal of human flesh—like that Sakura wench—and maybe call upon the other demons-_

"You can't!" The blonde rattled the large bars. "You can't!"

"_I can."_

The demon made a lunge for the window, but was pulled back with a tug that erupted from its stomach.

He growled, trying to move forward, but his body wouldn't comply with it.

It was then that Naruto realized, with his hand outstretched outside of the rusty blackened bars that they were too big. The bars were too big. They were meant to hold a towering demon that reached a few hundred feet tall, not a peculiarly short for his age child that probably couldn't even reach five feet.

Naruto charged through the bars and raced down the hallway, leaping into the dark abysses.

He tumbled out into his body.

"I knew it!" He grinned. "It's my body, so get the hell away from—

There was a tug on his stomach, much harder than the ones that sent him into a daze that lasted for minutes, but something that grabbed at his soul and conscious and sent him reeling back into rusty bars and straight back into his mindscape, head swooning and eyes pricking with tears. Damn that hurt. He looked again and Kyuubi was making a lunge for the window again.

"No you don't!"

Naruto crashed into a wall—an actual physical one—next to the window and his bed. Frowning as he did so.

And, for maybe the next hour or so (Naruto wasn't sure because without his never failing alarm clock, it was very difficult for him to be able to tell time like most normal people anymore), they continued this pattern of dominance without a very clear winner.

Finally, Naruto decided they had to do something else.

"Fine!" He shouted, at someone in particular that was unseen. "I call truce."

The demon inside him was thoroughly amused. "_Then, by all means, let's hear the little boy's truce."_

"You can be outside," Naruto began. "For as long as you want, it doesn't matter to me at all in the slightest whether I don't get my body back for days, what I eat, or what I wear-as long as I wear something-where I sleep, it doesn't matter."

The fox grinned slowly. "_But_?"

"But you can't harm my friends, or anyone that would remember me, one. Two, you have to go to team meetings and act like me so we don't rouse suspicion."

"_Those are high stakes for a mortal."_

"Yeah well," Naruto scowled. "Take it or leave it."

There was silence as the great demon resting inside him pondered for a moment or two.

"_I suppose that I will agree to your truce insolent being."_

Naruto smiled in relief.

"_But I'll be taking my time now."_

And he was suddenly pulled back into his mind, this time he avoided being swung into the bars and tumbled onto the ground, nimbly avoiding the puddle that sloshed around next to him with green murky water that stunk. He frowned at it, turning back to watch Kyuubi-in his body-leap out the window and flip onto the concrete below.

"Hey!" He shouted at the fox. "We have a team meeting in an hour!"

The fox only hummed in agreement, tipping up into the sky and bouncing off roofs.

"_Maybe I'll go."_

"No, 'maybe'! You are going! Truce remember? You might be a nasty monster out for blood but you still are a great demon! That's a lot to put on for the word you gave me." Naruto said pointedly, eyes narrowed.

Kyuubi growled gutturally teeth bared, before he veered in the direction of the red bridge.

Naruto, inwardly, was afraid of what Kyuubi was going to do. So he couldn't hurt anyone (that could recognize Naruto, at least) and that should be enough to keep him from being too highly suspected. Except for the eyes, the hair, the feral grin, the laugh, the-well he actually didn't have claws, but fingernails didn't seem like they were an intolerable substitute-the amazing strength and prowess—

Okay. A lot of things were different.

Sakura and Sasuke were already standing there, looking at Kyuubi in a profusely different manner, Kakashi was yet to make his appearance.

"Naruto…" Sakura began suddenly. "What the hell did you do to your hair?"

Kyuubi growled suddenly, and Naruto knew words like, 'Insufferable mortal, how dare you to speak to me in such a tone less then groveling—"

Luckily, instead the demon opted to skewer her with narrowed eyes, the way a tiger stares down its prey; a look of pure disgust and hatred.

_/Kyuubi!!/_

Sakura winced, taking a step backwards—obviously not used to such hatred from Naruto—, with Naruto screaming in his head with profanities that he was currently making up, Kyuubi growled low in his throat in utter annoyance. God damn, why the hell couldn't he just eat them already? It didn't matter if they probably wouldn't last him a few hours before he got hungry again. A snack is always tasty.

_/Tell them you're self-conscious about your hair!/_

_Why would I do that?!_

_/Because I would never do that to Sakura-chan!/_

"Sorry," Kyuubi seethed. "I'm…self-conscious about my hair."

"Oh," Sakura seemed relieved. "Well okay then."

Sasuke stared at him through aloof eyes, leaning against the back of the bridge with his arms crossed and one leg bent to put his leg on the pole. Kyuubi was no fool, the Uchiha brat was noticing something was up. Maybe the red eyes gave him away? But there was no way to change them, and he could probably brush it off as contacts.

Kyuubi gave the boy a grin, and the other boy blinked surprised at the action.

_/Yell something dammit! Like…teme or duck hair—something!/_

"Look like dead duck shit today, teme."

The boy growled at him. "Speak for yourself, dobe."

Kyuubi chuckled mirthlessly, watching the small human with the angry eyes. "Don't be jealous."

The Uchiha made a vague snort, as if he was decided upon outright laughing or mocking Naruto more.

"I could beat you down any day, dobe." Sasuke cockily smirked.

Kyuubi grinned despite himself, and Naruto could almost feel the blood rushing with the thought of relishing bloodshed. "Try me."

Sasuke lunged at him.

Sadly for the Uchiha, Kyuubi was certainly not Naruto, easily catching the punch and sending the boy twisting into the water, bending his wrist the other way in a matter of seconds as he did so. Sakura screeched, running to the side of the bridge to look under and watch the disrupted water as it splashed, Sasuke barreling in head first. There was a moment of silence as Sakura held her breath and Kyuubi grinned smugly. It had been a while since he had fought.

Finally, the Uchiha had fought his way to the surface, coughing and sputtering.

He grappled onto land, Sakura rushing over and trying to help him, but he only batted away her hands.

"Dobe…" He gasped for breath, sending Kyuubi a murderous look. "I'm going to kill you."

"I'm going to eat you."

_/Kyuubi!!/_

Sasuke blinked, taken aback. That hadn't sounded like a threat to pound him into the ground at all. It sounded like…Naruto actually wanted to tear him limb from limb and actually…eat him. He shivered at the thought. He wasn't about to let the dobe get to him.

Naruto wasn't sure whether Kyuubi was trying to be insulting or he was simply stating a fact. The demon king didn't seem to understand the subtleties of human interaction.

_What? He has it coming for him. _

Sasuke lunged at him, but Sakura stopped him.

Naruto thought she was going to reprimand Sasuke, instead she turned to Kyuubi. "What do you think you're doing Naruto? Apologize to Sasuke!"

Kyuubi's eyes flashed in anger. "You dare—"

"This is your fault Naruto! You apologize!"

"My fault?" Kyuubi growled, low in his throat. Sakura noticed it sounded very…demonic. "He lunged first. Technically I was defending myself."

"B-but, throwing him all the way into the river? And his arm!" Sakura looked affronted.

Kyuubi shrugged. "I could have killed him. It's his fault if he's that _weak _that he couldn't block it."

_/That was low./_

Sasuke broke into Kyuubi again, having as much luck as he had the first time.

Kyuubi had once again side-stepped, smiling his time, and took the other arm that was thrown at him, clenching it so tightly that his claws dug into the underside of Sasuke's wrist, before crashing him into the bridge's red iron grates. They groaned in protest, the force nearly braking them. The Uchiha rolled onto the bridge's wooden flooring, clutching his bleeding arm.

"Naruto! What was that?!" Sakura's scream cut into Kyuubi's ear drum like a banshee.

By god that woman was loud.

There was a poof, and a silver-haired sensei appeared.

"What are my little munchkins up to today?" Kakashi looked over the scene with a lazy eye. "Gotten a little bit over your head, Sasuke-kun?"

The Uchiha growled, trying not to bend his wrists as he got up.

"Nah, he just didn't realize how weak he really was."

Once again, Sasuke was about to go after Naruto. What damage he could do with two hurt arms, Kyuubi didn't care for. However, Kakashi had caught Sasuke easily before he got himself in even more trouble, sending an odd look to Kyuubi, who only grinned wider, showing pointed teeth. That was odd, Kakashi noticed, his eyes were red too.

"Naruto…maybe you should calm down." Kakashi tried pleasantly, eying the crimson eyes.

"Why?" Kyuubi cocked ahead. "I'm in _perfect _control, sensei."

Kakashi raised a brow. "You don't look it."

"But I am." Kyuubi rebuked. "We've made a truce...you could say."

"Truce?...We?...Naruto who are you talking about?" Sakura wondered to both of them, but neither gave her any information.

Finally, Kakashi turned away. "It's nothing, Sakura, just some personal things."

"But look what he did to Sasuke-kun—

"Well, next time Sasuke-kun shouldn't go running into fights if he can't win them."

The Uchiha glowered. "I can beat the dobe's ass any day."

"Except for today." Kyuubi said pointedly.

Sasuke made another lunge.

"Maa…maa…you guys are so feisty today! I hope hormones aren't kicking in."

Kyuubi shot Kakashi a glare. The silver-haired man met the gaze with a much more stoic one, but he eventually broke the eye contact. Naruto was running in circles in his mind. Kyuubi idiot! _Idiot_! Not only would Kakashi tell the Hokage, but then he'd have ANBU chasing him! He knew Kyuubi really, really, _really_ didn't give a rat's ass what happened, because if worse comes to worse, he'd tear them to shreds.

The only thing keeping him was this truce.

Luckily, Kyuubi only laughed, and Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

"So Kakashi-_sensei_," Kyuubi's confident and aloof voice sounded foreign on Naruto.

"What are we going to train with today?"

"Well," With another reluctant stare at Kyuubi, Kakashi dived into his explanation on how today, they would practice shuriken throwing and then go rescue a cat, mow a few lawns, fetch groceries, and by the end of it, they'd be accomplished for the day.

In the back of Kyuubi grinning viciously, Kakashi droning, Sakura furious and scared out of her mind, and Sasuke groaning in pain, Naruto decided that this may not have been the best idea.

But what else could have been done? Subconsciously, he shivered at the thought.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y

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	2. The Pool of Tears

**s**_y_n_c_**hr**_o_**n**i_**c**_i_t_y

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**w**hat **l**ies **b**eyond **t**he **f**arthest **r**eaches **o**f **t**he **s**ky

**?**

-

-

"Uzumaki Naruto."

The trees above him were darkened in the gloaming light, the sun boiling the sky at the edges of the Earth into flames that lit the rest of the world. The blonde looked up sightlessly, to where the moon stood at the opposite spectrum of the celestial blanket.

The ANBU dropped from the trees gracefully, as if blended shadows of the sprawling forestry around him.

The blonde knelt in the center of the blood spattered clearing, the limp, lifeless bodies around him turning the jagged, sliced earth into a shallow ocean of claret red. His hair was messily askew, as if he hadn't slept in days, and his eyes never strayed from the iridescent sheen of the moon, almost so entranced it was unnerving.

The boy finally seemed to stir out of his dream, rising to his feet slowly, as if pulled by strings on his shoulders, arms dangling uselessly and eyes closed. He lashed out then, a jerk to the side to where the black ops were wavering in the shadows, russet red eyes shifting through bramble and heavy darkness to pierce right through the Captain's heart.

Kyuubi stood up at his full not-so-intimidating height of five feet and three inches, yet somehow, such an alarming presence seemed to cow his present company into a restless, uneasy defense, a strangled demonic presence wrapped around the boy, and bright, bright hellish eyes that matched the seared sky behind him.

"Something wrong?" He tiled his head, flicking off blood from clawed fingertips, eyes never leaving the man before him.

Captain Tenzou was immediately assaulted with Hokage's tired smile and wary, blue eyes as he stepped away from him, a cautious hand on his shoulder as a silent salute, walking off into the distance as nine red tails dyed the horizon into a fiery death and an inhuman roar pitched the world until it shook.

Shaking the wisps of memories of another sunny, bright-eyed man, he made a vague gesture to the butchered bodies beneath Kyuubi's feet.

"Our mission was to assassinate missing-nin from Iwa who had crossed the borders."

Kyuubi tilted his head. A vague emptiness enclosed the back of his mind where Naruto had lost consciousness, and Kyuubi pondered how easily it would be to get away with a couple more murders.

"What's the problem then?" He snorted, stepping over the forming puddles of blood to crane his demonic eyes below the ANBU's mask. "I did it for you."

If the ANBU was in the least frightened by the red pupils with speckles of gold, swirling to create a knifed line that foretold the Kyuubi no Kitsune, he made no show other than slightly gripping his tantou tighter.

"We've heard from a source…Naruto-kun," The way the name rolled off his tongue made it sound like he didn't believe for one moment that Naruto was in control. "That you've been having trouble controlling the beast."

"Hmm?" Kyuubi purred, sniffing the mortal scent of the ANBU in front of him, causing his team to brandish weapons at the close proximity. "What beast are you talking about?"

His innocent voice didn't do much for him, but the ANBU must have realized he had been playing with them from the start.

"Kyuubi no Kitsune." One ANBU growled dangerously, the others turned rigid, but didn't drop their weapons.

The captain nodded the affirmative. "You'll come with us cooperatively. The Sandaime will want to know what the hell is going on."

Kyuubi only smiled in turn. "Alright."

Captain Yamato was fully aware that any cooperation by a dangerous _monster _was an action that surely couldn't be trusted. He was also aware that, if he wanted, Kyuubi could dispatch his whole team, or at least, mortally wound them. And while he trusted himself to be able to diffuse the demon, not all the ANBU in his current platoon were able to defend against a terror that most were much too young to have fought against before. His team waited hesitantly until Kyuubi walked forward, cautiously flanking him and bringing him into the group.

They reached Hokage tower as the moon tumbled into the dark Prussian of the sky, the other side already lighting into a hazy saffron.

The Hokage himself looked like an overworked elderly man, if Kyuubi was Naruto, he would have felt guilty for adding to the Hokage's ever growing list of things to attend to, but since he wasn't, there was no remorse.

Before the Hokage even looked up, the ANBU had all appeared in the room via Shunshin, Kyuubi in tow.

Once the smoke cleared, and Sarutobi readied to open his mouth to ask for the mission report, his eyes landed on a blood spattered Naruto, and he quickly shut his mouth. His first thought was somehow, Naruto had gotten himself into ANBU affairs—probably through a prank—and had interfered with their mission, maybe even causing harm to himself. Then, he noticed the blood red eyes, and the feral grin that looked so out of place on Naruto's usually cherubic visage.

"What is going on?" His voice rang clear, like that of a true Hokage. Even ANBU weren't immune to the harsh undertones of their superior's voice.

None of them seemed to want to answer, shifting uneasily on their feet in the face of their Hokage's angered, enraged voice.

"Naruto-kun..." Yamato began quietly. "We believe he has been...incapacitated..."

Hiruzen looked oddly at the fox boy, realizing quickly with a snarl, "Kyuubi."

"We don't know how it happened, sir." The ANBU captain began. "It seems that young Naruto-kun is not in control at all, he shows no signs of even subconsciously being aware of this, and we believe Kyuubi has forcefully taken over the boy's mindscape and is now using his body. This might have been caused from a slight malfunction in the seal—

Snorting loudly, Kyuubi interrupted the man in mid report.

"First of all, I didn't _forcefully _do anything, like you said, Naruto isn't in control. At all. Therefore, there was nothing to be forceful about."

"What have you done with Naruto?!" The Hokage stood up quickly.

"Do? Nothing. He's in here somewhere." Kyuubi tapped his head, smirking. "And second, there was no malfunction in the seal."

Before any could stop him, he lifted up the fabric of his dark blue shirt, showing the very scant remains of the once great Shiki Fuuin. The fading seal pulsed with his heartbeat, but it was so faint that even then Sarutobi had to squint to even make out the design.

"What…how…" He whispered, confused gaze meeting Kyuubi's aloof eyes.

"Maybe it wasn't water proof?" He shrugged jokingly. No one laughed.

"I don't know what happened." He feigned innocence, wanting to leave as soon as possible because Naruto's conscious was stirring. "I woke up, free, and the seal was gone. Obviously that blonde mortal's work was nothing but child's play."

The Hokage paled considerably.

"You know what this means, right?" Kyuubi grinned, feral and wild. "I'm in free control. That means that I can do whatever I want, and I suggest you don't stand in my way."

"Stand in your way?" Echoed Sarutobi angrily. "Even when you raze Konoha to the ground? You expect me to do this?"

Kyuubi opened his mouth to speak, he had no intention of telling them that him and Naruto had come up with a deal where he couldn't do such a thing, and was going to tell the Hokage a grand story about how he'd mercilessly destroy Konoha, until a familiar tug threw his conscious behind broken bars.

"Don't listen to him!" Naruto panted to the shocked audience.

"Naruto?" The Hokage walked around his desk, placing a wary hand on Naruto's back with concerned eyes. "What on earth is going on?"

"I—" Naruto caught his breath slowly, delphinium blue eyes wavering slightly from the ground to his admired Hokage's face. "The seal…"

"I know, we saw the seal." The Hokage explained quietly. "But what I want to know, is how it happened and why you didn't tell us."

Naruto flushed, looking downcast. He never cried, not once in almost seven years, but he felt tears pricking his eyes when he remembered his worst nightmare.

"I—I thought you would think I was the demon if I told you." Naruto gulped, hand quickly coming up to wipe an overflowing tear. "I thought that you'd hate me for not being strong enough to keep him away! That you'd hate me 'cause I wasn't doing what I was made to do…to jail the Kyuubi."

Sarutobi sighed. "Naruto, you weren't meant to jail the Kyuubi. You were meant to be just a normal boy. But the Yondaime gifted you to be a hero, even if Konoha hated you for it. The seal…disappearing is grave indeed, and I don't expect you to be able to fend off the demon yourself!"

Naruto only nodded numbly, eyes downcast.

"Now my boy, tell me how this happened."

Naruto frowned. "Well, it started when my stomach started feeling…weird. I wasn't sick or anything, but I felt like…it's hard to explain." He struggled for words. "But, I'd lose track of time. Like this one time, I was making my way to bed, and I fell. And when I got up, six days had already passed! But it just felt like a couple seconds to me. I was so scared…and then Kyuubi—

"What about Kyuubi?" The Sandaime asked gently.

"He…he took control of my body," Naruto gulped. "And he was about to go kill everyone when I noticed that the bars were too big for me, and when I leapt out of them I had my own body back. But since the bars were broken Kyuubi could get back out too."

"So what happened?"

"I—well, we kept going back and forth... until I figured we weren't going anywhere and I made a deal." Naruto admitted.

Hiruzen glanced at the boy skeptically. "And what was this truce?"

"That Kyuubi could have my body—

The Hokage stifled a harsh intake of breath; a small fraction of his disbelief.

—but he couldn't harm anyone, and had to pretend to be me so he didn't make anyone suspicious." The boy ended with a defeated, hopeless looking face.

"Did he agree?"

Naruto nodded.

Sarutobi sighed. "Well this is quite a predicament."

"I'm sorry…" Naruto sniffed, wiping at his eyes.

The Hokage shook his head. "It's not your fault. You did nothing wrong. I'm actually very proud of you, sticking up to a demon like that. You know, I don't think even the Yondaime would have done such a thing."

"R-Really?" Naruto looked up.

Sarutobi smiled. "Yes. But now, we must find a way to fix this."

"Well, Kyuubi just seems to like killing people." Naruto mulled, thinking distractedly about what Kyuubi did when he had his body. "He likes the challenge. But lately, he's been upset that there's nothing challenging to kill."

Naruto shuddered. "I can tell he wants to go after the Jounin here in Konoha. He's itching for a fight."

"You think we should let him?" The Hokage asked patiently.

"No!" Naruto shouted quickly. "But...maybe he could kill other people? Like, Iwa-nin or Kumo-nin or something."

Sandaime smiled, but it was forced and creased at the edges, a fact that Naruto was unaware of as he watched the man's face "That's a very good idea, Naruto-kun. Now there's a special job description for what you're saying. It's called the black-ops, do you know what that is?"

The blond took a nervous sweep of the room, where Captain Yamato still stood impassively beside him with his boar mask on, shooing the other ANBU out of the room.

"Like them, right?" He guessed. "I've seen them before a couple times..."

"Yes, like them." Hiruzen smiled to the child. "Now, I'll have to talk this over with my subordinates." At the thought of Utatane and Mitokado's gleeful face at such a notion, his ire lit once more. Of course, Danzou as well will be nothing short of ecstatic. He hardly doubted the council—who have been pushing for this idea for some time now—would raise against it. Not that they had much of a say anyway, the ANBU were the Hokage's. "But I'll work on getting this fixed for you, okay Naruto?"

"Okay." The blond echoed in a whisper, big china blue eyes and winter wheat coloring reminding him frighteningly of Minato.

The Sandaime watched the horizon outside of the windows, the world lit in pre-dawn.

"At any rate, I think you should go home and sleep. You have a team meeting at eight, right?"

"Oh! That's right! I'd better go!" Naruto grinned at the Hokage. "Thanks for helping me out, old man." His voice turned soft, and serious at the end.

The Hokage only smiled. "My job is to help my people, Naruto-kun."

With that, Naruto leapt out the window, racing to his house as fast as Sarutobi could watch him. The boy, so pure and naïve. However, this was all changing quickly, and no longer would Naruto be the innocent boy that he was now. Not with this new problem, not with Kyuubi taking over his world, and certainly not with the solution they had come up with. In reality, Sarutobi knew that the only way to truly appease the fox would be to give him what he wants, a chance to destroy Konoha. Obviously, that was an option that Hiruzen would never give. But what to say of other countries? Certainly once word of this malfunctioned seal spread, countries would be baiting the fox with the freedom to destroy this country.

The fox's loyalty was a very dire question with no real answer. However, Naruto's was always faithful.

Knowing the council, they'll see this as the perfect opportunity to get what they've always wanted, the perfect weapon to pierce at Konoha's most dangerous enemies. It was what they did with Minato, and surely, what they would do with his son.

Both options would crumble Naruto's innocent perspective of the world, the one that Sarutobi had strove to protect, and leave him just like the protégé's of Konoha, the estranged children warped from their childhood, and turned into crazed, society harming shinobi or to missing-nin.

The choice was simple however, have this power with him, or turned against him.

"Hokage-sama?" Captain Tenzou called aloud warily.

"I'm afraid this choice ways much heavier on my mind than I let it appear to Naruto-kun." Hiruzen sighed.

"II don't understand..." The black-ops captain trailed off.

"You saw him…so afraid of what other people think, so afraid to be shunned from the attention that so very few people give him." The man stared distantly at the benign presence of the sun, peeling over the very top of the Hokage Mountain. "Already, the innocence I had striven to protect is now cracking. I fear I haven't done an attentive job. I fear with this new development, no longer will Naruto be the young boy I see now."

Captain Tenzou was quiet, as his team noticed the mood of the conversation and quickly left them privacy.

"He's a sweet boy at a tender age." Tenzou agreed. "But like most Gennin now, he's going to be tested and tried against enemy shinobi, and just like all his peers, he will lose the fragility that accompanies him through childhood. If anything, I think it would be best."

"I suppose you are right." Hiruzen tapped his pipe, lighting it and placing it in his mouth. "I can't protect him forever."

--

--

Naruto stretched his arms above his head, both mind and body felt like he hadn't slept at all, which was partially true.

Naruto lightly touched his cheek, a deep slash crossing through his whisker scars. It was healing abnormally fast, but Naruto didn't know what to do if Sakura or Sasuke asked him how he got it.

The boy smoothed out his shirt—Kyuubi had actually burned his jumpsuits, much to Naruto's chagrin—and patted his cargo shorts for kunai. Luckily, he had left a whole canister in his back pocket.

He crossed the red bridge, noting how Sasuke scowled darkly at him, and Sakura curiously peered from behind Sasuke.

"Naruto…what are you wearing?" She asked bluntly.

Naruto shrugged. "My clothes seem to have been burned."

Sakura and Sasuke both gave him very, "your shitting me" looks. He only smiled sheepishly.

"And what happened to your cheek?" Sakura traced the deep gash with her finger. Normally, Naruto would have been touched at her concern and blushing at her smooth finger against his cheek, but now he was just too tired to care.

"Uh. Cat. Yeah. A cat scratched me yesterday." He murmured sleepily.

Fucking Kyuubi. What the hell was he doing last night?!

Sakura's concern washed into annoyance. "And why did you do that to Sasuke-kun yesterday?!"

Naruto snorted. The one thing Kyuubi had ever done that was actually good. Throwing Sasuke into the river. "He deserved it."

Sasuke growled. "Just wait dobe, I'll kill you."

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura admonished. For a shinobi, she really didn't like the word 'kill'.

"What?" Naruto wedged a finger into his ear unceremoniously. "If Sasuke wants to believe that shit, let him. He couldn't get a scratch on me."

Sakura frowned at him, about to open her mouth when Kakashi poofed into existence above their heads.

"Morning young ducklings!"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura screeched. "I've been here for almost three hours! Where have you been?"

"A woman was in dire need of soap this morning, and being such a kind neighbor I went to the grocery store. But a black cat crossed my path and I had to take a detour…but then there was construction and I had to turn around—

"Liar!" She pointed at him in annoyance.

"At any rate," Kakashi dropped onto Earth right side up. "We have a mission today!"

"What kind?" Naruto grinned.

"Well, a local farmer broke his leg yesterday, and we're going to go water his crops for him! All seven miles of them!"

Naruto's jaw dropped, Sakura flopped to the floor, and Sasuke hissed, "That's crap."

The next twelve hours were excruciatingly painful.

Naruto used his Kage Bunshin to easily take care of the two and a half miles of pumpkins and watermelons that he was assigned to. The real problem was watching Sakura complain about hers because she had no such tactic to speed up this process. Naruto had noticed somewhere between his eighty-second watermelon he watered that Kyuubi had failed to tell him that he also had a broken rib, from what, exactly, he had no idea.

The woes of having a demonic alter ego.

"Naruto!" Sakura whined again. "Can you at least help me, now that you're done?!"

"Your doing a fine job yourself!" Naruto grinned, from his throne of the largest watermelon in the entire patch. It was about the size of a table, round and verdant green, bust covered in jagged pink lines.

She groaned.

"Naruto."

The boy turned around to see Sasuke darkly frowning at him.

"Fight me."

Sasuke was so predictable…

"Why?" He peered at the boy, grinning. "You'll just lose, Sasuke-teme."

Sasuke twitched. "That was a fluke."

"Which?" Naruto smirked. "The first, or the second? Or maybe both?"

The pompous Uchiha charged at him, kunai ready. But instead, Naruto leapt out of the way with a speed he didn't possess before, Sasuke's kunai skewering the melon into a burst of sticky juice.

Naruto landed slightly off kilter, mainly because of his injured rib, with a thrill of adrenaline rushing through his system.

He'd never felt like the before. This strength…this power. Obviously Kyuubi had honed his body's senses and reflexes. It felt amazing. He'd never felt so in control, and so powerful. He felt as if it would take mere seconds to crush Sasuke.

Suddenly, soundless images of dead Iwa-nin flashed past his eyes.

He frowned, dodging Sasuke's second strike and shifting the boy's weight so that he went flying into a patch of leaves. What had Kyuubi been up to last night? Whatever it was, it had made him stronger.

Sasuke stood shakily to his feet quickly, breathing through his nostrils with harsh labored noises, like an angry humiliated beast.

With a flurry of moves that Naruto hadn't seen before, he engaged the blond in one of his weakest skills, Taijutsu.

Strangely, Naruto met all of his strikes with counters, blocking his kicks with ease and going on the offensive with strategically placed punches. Sasuke, more angered than ever with the dobe so easily beating him, kicked the blonde with a chakra enhanced kick, sending him flying near the river.

Naruto grinned when he got up.

He'd never felt this way, and was loving every minute. Was this what Kyuubi felt like when he fought? This rush…it was almost an addiction.

"Why are you laughing dobe?" Sasuke mocked. "Did it hurt that much?"

"Actually," Naruto popped his joint back in place without a flinch. "It didn't hurt at all."

Growling in white hot rage, the Uchiha slammed into him, sending both of them into the water.

Toppling backwards, Naruto threw the Uchiha off of him, sending himself face first into the water, bringing his hands up in time before the spray of water hit his nose and sent him into a coughing fit. Naruto fell with his hands outstretched eyes clenched so that the water didn't flood them, waiting to feel water engulfing him with its cool sensation, but instead, only felt the splash of Sasuke's descent into the rushing river.

He blinked.

Instead, he was floating on top of the water. Not falling in.

Was he…walking on water?

Naruto grinned, laughing.

He had no idea how, exactly, his chakra control had gotten to such heights that he could walk on water, but he was pleased with the results. Kyuubi obviously was doing something to his body, and Naruto wasn't objecting to it at all.

_/Of course I've done something. Its called training. Ever heard of it?/_

Naruto frowned. He hadn't even noticed that Kyuubi was awake.

_Don't mock me. I mean, what kind of training?_

_/Training you've obviously never heard of. It's called chakra training. / _The Kyuubi sighed at his ignorance.

_What's that?_

The fox snorted. _/Honing your senses and chakra control. That way you aren't as weak as you were./_

_I wasn't weak! _Naruto protested.

_/You felt that rush, right?/ _Kyuubi purred delightfully. _/The feeling of strength and power, knowing you could easily dominate your opponent. Don't tell me you didn't like it./_

_I'd never felt anything like it before. _Naruto admitted.

_/Because you were weak. Now that you're not, it feels so much better, doesn't it?/_

I guess…

As Sasuke gasped for breath some ways down the stream, and Naruto stood to survey the damage.

The Uchiha didn't look like he sustained any bad injuries, aside from assimilating the appearance of a wet rat. The dark haired boy shook his hair out as he sputtered for greedily air, inhaling loudly. Naruto never realized just how much the Uchiha _wasn't _what he thought he'd be. Sasuke, for the entirety of Naruto's life, marked an unattainable notion of power, a symbolism of everything Naruto wanted to be—strong, well-liked, admired—and yet, at the same time, there he was, defeated. By him.

Naruto grinned lopsidedly.

For once, _he _had beat Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw Naruto standing on the water.

"That dobe…" He hissed to himself. "How the hell does he know how to do that?!"

"Well, aren't you boys all feisty today?" Kakashi appeared near the bank of the river, Sakura in tow.

Said pink-haired girl flushed as she noticed Sasuke's wet form, but still held a tinge of confusion and anger.

"Naruto what the hell?!" She screamed at him from her spot safe and dry behind Kakashi. "Why would you do that to Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto frowned. "Sakura-chan! He told me to fight him!" The blonde protested.

"And you agreed?!"

"No!" Naruto sputtered. "He charged at me!"

"But—

"Now Sakura, we've been over this. Sasuke-kun shouldn't get into fights that he can't win. Obviously Naruto's been doing some training on his own!" Kakashi explained to her, and she folded her arms and frowned in response.

Naruto only smiled secretively.

"Naruto…" Sakura said dumbly. "And training?"

Kakashi watched her expression from the corner of his eye. "Yes Sakura, that's what ninja do to get better, they train."

Sakura blushed at the rhetoric. Kakashi had a way of making her feel so stupid when she berated Naruto.

"And speaking of training, I had some on the agenda." Kakashi smiled. "But it seems that we've taken too long to water these plants, and we'll just have to do it tomorrow."

Sasuke groaned, fishing himself out of the water like a drowned cat, shaking out the water from his limp, dark hair.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura raced to his side, only to get a cold shoulder as the Uchiha pushed her off.

"Anyways," Kakashi pulled his orange book into his hands. "I think it's about time you guys headed home, huh?"

Sasuke muttered something, glowering, and pushed past the group huddled at the river's edge. Sakura scampered behind him. As they were passing the small farmhouse about a mile away, Kakashi turned to face the boy standing on the water. He noted that Naruto seemed familiar with the technique, even though the boy was surprised to see he was standing.

"Hokage-sama informed me of the predicament with the broken seal."

"Yeah…" Naruto fidgeted under his sensei's stare. "I should have told you…"

Kakashi waved him off. "It's my understanding that you were afraid of our reactions?"

"Kinda." Naruto kicked water with his feet, avoiding eye contact.

"You shouldn't be." Kakashi dismissed his concerns with a smile, which came out as more of a crinkle in his eye. "The seal malfunctioned, not you. And also, Kyuubi's going to be placed as a Hunter-nin for the benefit of Konoha?"

"I think it would be a good idea." Naruto admitted. "That way, he can still kill as much as he wants, but it would be more beneficial for him to kill Konoha's enemies…right?"

"But how do you feel about that? Won't it be as if it was you killing?" Kakashi asked him.

"I—…" Naruto struggled for words. "I don't…

"Naruto-kun." A man with a senbon hanging from his lips appeared from a cloud of smoke. "Mission from Hokage-sama."

Naruto sent an apologetic look to his sensei, before leaving with the Jounin.

* * *

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y

- - - - - - - - -


	3. A Caucus Race and a Long Tale

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**ci**__t_**y**

—

**D**eceitful **a**bove **a**ll **t**hings

—

**K**yuubi had a strange way of piercing his eyes through Naruto's heart with little effort, twisting and curbing and swallowing the boy in the bleeding russet world that crumbled behind the demigod's raging screams, wrenching the sky apart and standing in front of the burning world with Naruto's skin, smiling with wide wrathful eyes.

_Absolute, corrupting power, and the moon awakened behind him, one eye and ten tomoe, and the man which dared to attempt to destroy his everlasting power. Wild hair whipping in the wind, the Rinnegan curling in his eyes, hands clutching the staff. The perfection of being whole again. _

_Inhuman hearing warned him to the soft sounds of mortal breathing, labored from the trek to the mountain's highest point. It came out in soft puffs some distance behind him, like the wind rolling off the ocean's waves—_

_Blue eyes._

_Bright, bright, bright, the spectrum of light paled behind the man's irises—so beautiful—the sky painted into them as if someone had caught the colors of the stratosphere and tucked them behind his pupils._

_Standing on top of a monstrous frog, lemon colored hair pushed back from his hot breath fanning the man's face and then._

Naruto fell from his bed and landed awkwardly with his toes near his head, half on his back.

He struggled to breathe as his injured leg began to bleed, trickling into his hair.

"Argh!" His irate scream was muffled by the shirt that fell from his sides and onto his face.

When he finally pushed himself off from the floor, he eyed the gray undertones of his room warily. Kyuubi had wrenched his closet apart and the doors were limp on the hinges, battered and broken. His orange jumpsuits were burned to ashes on the floor (he hadn't bothered to clean them up) and in replacement was the standard ANBU uniform.

He blinked, startling with a gasp. He had an _ANBU uniform_ in his closet.

Naruto hurriedly pushed the material of his shirt away from his face, to scan his room.

A fox mask was on his bedside table.

With great fascination and delight, he slowly crawled from his sitting position to eye the mask with the something akin to immense joy. The alabaster and smooth planes of the mask were marred by the slits for eyes and mouth, the ends curled into fox ears and the nose a fox's snout.

All his life had he wanted to be strong, to protect his friends, to _be _someone.

The ANBU mask on his table proved his worth to the world, and he held it carefully in his hands the way a child holds its most precious toy.

Suddenly, he dropped the bone mask, and it clattered to the floor as his once enamored eyes turned distant and cold.

This wasn't his mask.

In fact, he wondered if this was even his body anymore.

This whole life of his had once obtained such a routine predictable reality that Naruto had found himself comfortable in the laid back tones of it.

Once, he had woken up at nine and met for team meetings, bantered with Sasuke, wooed at Sakura, did a couple lame missions before getting some ramen, and then repeating the process in the morning.

Yesterday, he had a large gap from one in the morning to noon, in which he could remember vague images of broken bodies, and cowed Konoha ANBU as he wrenched a human body open with his own claws. He then struggled out of bed because apparently one of those Iwa-nin had landed a kunai to his thigh tendon and it was bleeding profusely over his carpet (Kyuubi hadn't heard of a medic-nin, obviously) and had cleaned it up with his mundane medical skills, ate ramen, and then slept because his body wouldn't cooperate enough to get to the team meeting.

At first, he had looked upon this double life with wonder and whimsy. Not everyone was a Gennin and also one of the most feared ANBU now in existence.

But lately, he began to feel as if he did nothing to deserve the toned muscles, expert chakra control, or lightning reflexes.

With his mood successfully dampened, Naruto's arcane sense of oneness was only considerably worsened when he noted the ANBU tattoo on his shoulder, a symbolism of the stretch between himself, Kyuubi, and their medium. Something he liked to call his body more than what Kyuubi liked to call his medium.

While he pulled out of his apartment he tried to call upon the fox, who appeared to be in a deep slumber and did not answer his calls.

Ichiraku greeted him with a warm smile as he happily slurped his noodles, even though it was five in the morning and not many were awake, Ichiraku always seemed to contain a vigor and joy that not only radiated from him but spilt onto his cooking, making it more delicious then anyone else's. Naruto wasn't used to waking up so early, and struggled between bowing his head in mock rest and attacking his seventh bowl of ramen. He sourly eyed the vegetables that were placed in the broth. Kyuubi insisted, saying that Naruto's body was a twig and needed some real food sources. And also, it was either this or the fox would begin to eat humans (claiming they held extreme nutritional value, and then going into explicit detail about the taste of bone marrow…) which set Naruto correctly onto the path of a semi-vegetarian.

By the time he reached the gates the ANBU he was assigned with were already there.

Uzuki Yugao, a women he seemed to constantly work with was leaned coolly against the stone of the gates, effectively cowing the Chuunin on guard duty.

Another ANBU, whose name had never had the pleasure of knowing, was squatting on one of the taller rocks surrounding the northern gate, cigarette protruding from his mask and legs spread so his arms rested between them.

There was one other, adjusting his pack in the shadow of a nearby tree, like a subtle spot of blotched shadow, so blended that it was hard to even notice his presence.

He nervously stood with them, feeling out of place more so than he had ever had when the children at the playground didn't include him in their games. There was something much more intimidating about Konoha's finest shinobi gathered around him then young malleable children with wary glances and hushed parents.

These were the elite, with the missions Naruto only thought of on dreary academy days between daydreaming of Sakura and him and punching Sasuke in the ear, standing before him as if he was one of them.

Him. Just Naruto. Lowly Naruto, the Gennin who, at one point, only dreamed of being surrounded by such intelligent and prodigal shinobi.

Captain Yamato strode out of a whorl of smoke that gathered at his feet, not even bothering to beckon the other ANBU, who stood and immediately followed him.

He only paused when he noticed Naruto didn't do the same, turning around with some hint of displeasure.

"Kyuubi?" He lazily called to him. Naruto realized that if he had been Kyuubi, this could have been considered undertones of goading and he began to piece together the relationship Kyuubi had with his 'superior'.

"Err…" He began timidly, as he reached hearing range. "I'm not…I'm not Kyuubi."

Yamato tilted his head, and the other ANBU (he assumed he had worked with them often) stood frozen. "Naruto?" He asked, confusedly.

Behind his head, Naruto shook his head vigorously. "Sorry…" He frowned, hating the weakness he felt around these people who watched him expectantly. "I tried to wake him up!" He said, honestly. "But he's not listening to me."

Yamato only rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. "It's not your fault." And then, rather mournfully. "But I suppose we're in a bit of a predicament."

Kyuubi had risen through the ranks of ANBU faster than most, mainly due to his lack of morals and ability to slaughter anything that moves relentlessly and without sympathy, earning him the reputation that resulted in the retrieval of some of the most impossible suicide missions, which usually ended in the demon carrying the team and killing many of the enemy shinobi. Of course, this may have something to do with the fact that he enjoyed the sport, and relished in causing bloodshed.

Begrudgingly, Yugao and her fellow teammates realized that without Kyuubi, they would have been dead by now.

Seeing the boy in front of him, the demon's alter ego, shook them considerably, so fragile and confused...helpless...

"Sorry," He muttered again.

The captain glanced at his watch worriedly, scanning the forest. "We have to move now." He empathetically gazed at Naruto.

"We'll have to begin our trek to the rendezvous coordinates now or we'll be late." He motioned to his team to follow him, before saying to Naruto, "You'll have to come with us. Hopefully he'll wake up before then. If not…"

Yamato didn't finish that sentence.

Naruto had never traveled this fast before, but oddly, his body seemed used to this and effortlessly charged through the bramble and wooden limbs with his fellow ANBU. He worriedly glanced around, feeling more vulnerable then ever.

While Kyuubi was a trained killer, and had the internal predatory instincts like every demon, Naruto was only a mortal boy, not yet trained for watching subtle movements in the forestry, or the areas which caused the fastest human death, or which way to wrench his kunai when splitting someone's trachea.

His heart sped quicker as he tried to wake the fox, mentally calling him to no avail.

After what seemed to him like hours, they met in a sun-speckled clearing, the canopy so thick sun beams shone through like crepuscular rays. The other ANBU dropped from tree limbs easily, while Naruto stumbled down.

He flinched as he found what would have been their second squadron, turned into a field of corpses.

The other ANBU had immediately unsheathed their weapons, while he pushed his hands to his sensitive nose as the stench of rotting flesh and blood met him. What horrified him the most was not the repulsive odor, but the fact that only a _part _of him felt the need to wretch, the other was greedily hording the sent as if it were beguiling as a young maiden's voice.

"Ambush." Yugao hissed to their captain. "They knew we were coming."

"How?" The other ANBU asked.

"How do you think, Koga?" The other spat furiously, as if talking to a slow, dimwitted child and was slowly losing patience. "A spy."

"I know that Towa." Koga growled. "But who?"

"Now is not the time for quarrels." Yamato shifted his mask, blank eyes peering into the distance.

"They're coming closer." Yugao informed. Naruto felt his pulse quicken. "They know we're here."

He closed his eyes, screaming inwardly as loud as he could something along the lines of, "Wake up you fucking fox I'm about to _die _because I don't know jack shit of what I'm doing and we're all going to end up smudges of rotting skin on the forest floor if you don't wake your ass up and _do something_ because they'll be here any minute and I'm not ready for this I can't do anything I'm just a Gennin (just a Gennin, just a Gennin)—

And Iwa ANBU tore through the forestry, ripping apart wood that sheltered the Konoha black ops and leaves and limbs fluttered to the ground like shattered glass and Naruto had never been so scared in his _life_, not even when the villagers had tried to kill him when he was six, or when he couldn't make a Bunshin, or when Mizuki crept closer to him—

His eyes opened, bloodshot and dark like the sunset when the sun burned bright enough to die the stars claret red, the wrathful eyes from his dreams, where the world swam in black and the mountains were made from corpses and the human race was nothing but the speck on his giant paw and he wrenched the sky open with his screams and broke the earth with his teeth.

But the only thing he felt was relief, and everything went black.

—

He gasped, and pulled himself out from the water his face was in.

He wiped it off of his face hurriedly, the water felt slippery and heavy, as he rubbed it out of his eyes and it became sticky in his hair.

Naruto paused, opening his eyes.

Not water, but blood.

He grimaced, pulling himself out of the repugnant red puddle and surveyed the area. He was kneeling in a shallow ocean of russet blood, hands wrist-deep into the fluid and he stood up quickly, trying to regain his balance as his countenance was lost completely. Towa was shifting his gear, a few cuts but otherwise uninjured. Yugao was checking the fallen Konoha ANBU for pulses, while Yamato retrieved the scrolls they were supposed to give to them.

Koga seemed to literally appear from the shadows and paused, stricken, when he noticed Naruto's head up.

Naruto looked down at himself, covered in someone else's blood (with his nose, he could tell that it was a mixture of most of the dead Iwa-nin on the forest floor, and none of it was his) and rather short compared to the rest of them.

"What happened?" He rubbed the back of his head, where the mask's string met his hair in a vexatious itch.

"You killed them." Koga replied flatly, walking forward to roll over a dead man. Naruto saw the gash that ran from his chest to his stomach in four jagged lines.

"Kyuubi killed them." Yugao corrected quietly.

Towa scoffed. "If only Komachi saw this. She'd cry and send this boy back to his momma saying he was too innocent."

"Innocent? Really?" Koga scoffed, inspecting the other bodies that apparently Naruto had killed.

Meanwhile, the blond stood despondently, guiltily watching his blood-died toes as they continued to discuss him.

"If Naruto wasn't here then you'd be dead right now." Yugao hissed at her moronic teammates, before hoisting her pack and following in suit with Captain Yamato, who had jumped onto a tree branch.

Successfully cowed by their only female teammate, the two men stayed quiet as Naruto leapt up with a small smile, even if Yugao couldn't see it.

—

—

Naruto lay on his back, the rough edges of the red bridge's bark dug into his skin unpleasantly, and he wiggled about until he got more comfortable.

He had one arm over his eyes, shielding them from the abundance of bright light on a cloudless morning.

Luckily it wasn't very hot, nor humid, and the river's ice cold mountain water cooled the area around it considerably.

Usually Naruto would leap onto the bridge with an inordinate amount of energy, boundless and uncontrollable, after a good night's sleep and a stomach full of ramen. Now, however, he hadn't even returned home, opting to stay the night on the bridge and catch some more hours of sleep by staying here instead of having to wake up from his apartment and drag his ass to the meeting place.

While his relation with other ANBU was downright abysmal, he knew enough about ninja etiquette (or lack thereof) to know that it wasn't uncommon to spend a night in a tree or under a bush, especially after a hard mission and sleeping off a hangover.

Today, or more closer to last night, Kyuubi had once again decimated enemy forces, apparently relishing in the feel and cowing his ANBU peers into a subdued sort of respect. It probably had nothing to do with respect at all, but more so the way wolves bow to their alphas in courtesy, knowing the other animal is much powerful and deserves recognition for such.

Naruto noticed that many of Kyuubi's relations were based solely on primal instincts. For example, his relationship with Naruto. One built from self preservation.

What worried him though, was how easily the great demon adapted, twisting into human tendencies as if he had been born into them, and his acute knowledge in the psychological aspect of the shinobi world.

"Naruto?" Sakura loudly questioned, and Naruto groaned.

"Not so loud…" He whimpered, adjusting himself to angle away from her, hoping she'd take it as a sign to leave him be.

"How long have you been here?" She didn't.

He groaned. "Dunno."

"Were you here all night?"

"...No."

"Did you get here this morning?" She pestered.

He, once again, groaned in what could have been considered an exasperated sigh, before turning to her. "Sakura-chan, I'm_ real_ tired. Let me sleep."

Her brows furrowed and it looked like she wasn't going to be merciful, but luckily (and Naruto had never once considered the Uchiha's pompous ass a miracle) Sasuke plodded along sullenly and diverted Sakura's attention.

"Sasuke-kun!" She squealed, hopping towards him like a butterfly to a flower, twittering on about something Sasuke obviously wasn't paying attention to.

Naruto was just thankful for the sleep.

Kakashi, who entered the scene many, many hours later, was much more merciful than Naruto's pink-haired semi-banshee teammate and had proclaimed, sotto voce, that they were, "Doing cooperative exercises" which included a depressed Sasuke and an overjoyed Sakura meandering off into the woods for some tree walking and water walking, whilst Kakashi trained Naruto. The latter forming into more of, Kakashi read his book and Naruto slept.

By the time Naruto had even opened his eyes, the sun cast long shadows on the ground and boiled the sky into reds and oranges.

"Sensei?" He muttered weakly.

While he received no reply, he did hear the flipping of a page and a squawk as Sakura fell into the water somewhere down stream out of sight.

"Hard mission, huh?"

Naruto only groaned in response.

"Towa said that you're—err, Kyuubi—is quite a menace out there." Kakashi mused aloud.

Naruto frowned. "I guess so." His voice came out softer then usual, more resigned.

Kakashi tore his eye from his book, concerned. "I think that maybe you should take some time off the roster. I don't think it's very healthy for someone your age—

"I wish I could." Naruto's eyes (and Kakashi felt a kick to the gut that would send him spiraling, because they were Minato's eyes) stared into a burning sky, the pale blues mirroring his glowing irises, as they sucked the sunlight in the way the moon reflects the sun. "But I don't want to _know _who Kyuubi will target if I do. What if he starts attacking Konoha nin? Or worse, people I know in Konoha?" Naruto bit his lip as he said this. He had fully presumed that, after gaining control of Naruto's body, the fox would rampage and pillage the village to it's heart's content. Yet somehow, there was some sort of knowing bemusement to the fox, as if it had found the entire idea of Naruto striking a deal with it amusing, and was only following the agreement on some level of entertainment for himself. Naruto had no doubt Kyuubi could do what he liked regardless of what Naruto said or did about it. So why wasn't he?

He didn't voice his concerns aloud, however.

Kakashi sighed. His student was forced into a tough position that he should never have had to deal with.

"And anyways," Naruto smiled, even if it was bitter sweet and looked like it caused him physical pain to do so. "It could be worse. Everyone could be dead."

But at the cost of his life, the fools that the Yondaime, that ninja everyday, died to protect got to conveniently live their lives.

"Sometimes I wonder if perhaps that is what they deserve." Kakashi murmured, too low for Naruto to hear.

"Naruto," He smiled lightly, changing the conversation. "Why don't you join us for some basic exercises? I'm sure you don't need it, but…"

The, 'you should spend time with your teammates' was omitted from the sentence, but Naruto understood either way. He nodded as he pushed himself off the bridge with a hand, landing on the jagged upstream waters that sloshed and growled like a babbling brook.

"Not so easy, hmm?" Kakashi leaned over the bridge, book in his hand. While downstream near the lake was much more smooth waters, upstream was like walking on changing diagonal blocks of ice.

Another torrent of waves barreled down into Naruto, icy and bone-freezing straight from the mountains, and he sputtered as it forced him backwards.

As he surfed on the chilling watter, the boy grinned maliciously, forming hand seals he didn't know he knew, and shouted words that sounded foreign on his tongue, before a wave of water crashed over the bridge and onto Kakashi, and the blond jogged down the river to his teammates.

Sasuke and Sakura looked up forlornly to watch Naruto attempt to surf on a log, before the wave crashed into them too.

"Naruto!" Sakura shrieked, as she pulled herself onto the rocky bank.

In his retort, Sasuke spat out a water reed.

—

—

Tatsuji had been working secretively to give Koharu and Homura information on Amegakure for years now, and yet, he had never seen such a peculiar sight as this.

He had heard rumors about Yamato, considered by many to be one of the greatest ANBU captains of all time, and his mismatched team of ANBU that were under his command.

Of course, Uzuki Yugao, with perfect velvety hair, silky smooth the color of orchids and not one strand out of place, even as she flipped out of the trees with her teammates.

The other, whose name he didn't know—but was called Towa—squatted next to her, adjusting his bird mask and had dark gray hair tied low at his neck.

Koga, he had met once before and was very sure belonged to another ANBU squadron, and must be a replacement for someone else.

And the last, unnamed and hiding behind a fox mask (interesting choice of animal, and he was fairly sure they had become out of style after the Kyuubi's attack) with lemon colored hair that fell over his face and tan skin. He couldn't be much older then a teenager, and reminded Tatsuji sorely of Itachi. And everyone knew exactly how _that _predicament went down.

But the boy looked oddly eerie, standing beneath the wan, wintry spill of the moon, backdropped against Konoha's infamous killers.

He handed the scroll to Yamato, keeping an eye on the young blonde.

"This is to be taken directly to the Hokage's assistants." He said with some finality.

Captain Yamato nodded once, not saying a word as he beckoned with his hand to the other ANBU to leap back into the trees, making their visit as swift as possible. The blond turned back at first, piercing him through the gaping holes of his eyes before joining them.

The ANBU team took off like a flight of birds embarking to the south, quick and smooth, but wary of the length of their journey and stamina.

Oddly, it was Kyuubi who spoke. "He reeks of distrust."

While Yamato had never known that it was possible to smell emotions, he wouldn't put it past a vengeful demon king to be able to do so. "Why do you say that?" He asked, partially humoring the demon.

The demon scoffed, and didn't answer.

Obviously Kyuubi didn't take well to being treated like a child, and must have noticed the bemusement in his Captain's voice. Or perhaps, he had smelt it on him? Yamato chuckled again.

"Give the scroll to the Hokage." Was all he said, avoiding Yamato's words entirely.

Yugao and Towa sent him looks, as they hopped past forestry lighting-fast and featherlight-quick.

"And we should listen to you, because…?" Koga growled at him, abhorrence only lightly veiled.

Kyuubi fiercely snarled back, as if it was a secret language made of reflexes and movements and animalistic mono-symbolic sounds that none of his present company was aware of. "I never said you had to."

Humans, he mentally digressed, such a waste.

"But those elder mortals," Kyuubi sniffed the air distastefully, as if he was talking about foot fungus and not the village's most esteemed elderly. "They are ruthless. They believe differently to your idolized Hokage."

"Doesn't take smelling emotions to know that." Towa mirthlessly laughed under his breath.

"You're saying you think he gave us explicit orders to bypass the Hokage for a reason?" Yamato ignored his subordinate.

"Perhaps." The demon's tone was even, and he said nothing else for the duration of the run.

The team split as they entered the gates. Yamato penned down the mission scroll as he entered Konoha.

"Get some rest." He called to his team, but was making a special point to Kyuubi. He knew it must be difficult for Naruto to cope with an uncooperative body due to the excessive amounts of strain it was put under daily.

As he walked up the stairs to Sartuobi's office, he hoped that young Naruto was dealing with the pressure well, for there weren't many people his age that could.

"Hokage-sama." He bowed formally to the village leader, who waved at him in response.

"And how was he?"

Hiruzen asked for a specific report on Kyuubi's behavior daily. Yamato cleared his throat. "He learns remarkably fast. Not just human jutsu, but also mannerisms and speech patterns. A week ago he couldn't understand sarcasm, but he seems to have an…abnormally tight grip on it now." He didn't think it was imperative to inform the Hokage of the ridiculous amounts his subordinates were short-handed by verbal irony.

"Does he get along well?" The Hokage leaned closer, concernedly.

Yamato hedged. "I'm sure if he wanted, he could easily playnice. But I'd suspect anything of the sort to be foul play."

"As I'd think as well." The Sandaime nodded, closing his eyes.

He was silent, as he blew his pipe again.

"The council wants an intimate report on his every move. I had first conjectured this to be an extensive concern over the mental stability of a demon, as I'm sure you know it isn't uncommon at all for village's to use their Jinchuuriki as weapons. However, his is not a Jinchuuriki to be molded, but a demon with a mind of its own, something much more powerful then a simple rampant brainless fool. Since Kyuubi is a fully sentient being, this obviously is another matter entirely. The council, perhaps, is unaware of this fact, but Utatane and Mikotado wouldn't be fooled. They surely must have realized the crucial difference between Naruto-kun and other Jinchuuriki."

"You don't suppose it's a contrivance for any upcoming wars?" Yamato frowned beneath the mask. "As a weapon? He's much too young."

"The young are malleable." The Hokage sighed. "Kyuubi surfacing is almost, appreciated in these circumstances. And at any rate, isn't that what he already is?"

Tenzou, not knowing how to respond, decided upon letting silence resume, poignant in its ringing, as if wallowing for the boy who was lost in the waging strife between Hokage and council.

"The council has already used the broken seal as a ploy to use the boy for their intent purposes, which also benefits Konoha." Yamato contemplated. "While for Naruto-kun, it has the opposite effect."

The ANBU captain locked eyes with the Hokage. "He isn't fairing well; I'm often reminded of a boy lost at sea, his head barely above water."

"Thank you for your report, Yamoto."

The captain only bowed in response.

* * *

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y

_no, Towa and Koga are not made up. They're from the video games. _


	4. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**ci**__t_**y**

—

_hiding from the beast,_

_but the beast is always there,_

_watching without eyes because_

_the beast is just my fear_

—

**N**aruto was puzzled, as he fidgeted with his ANBU mask while entering the Hokage's office.

It wasn't Sarutobi who greeted him, but Kakashi, leaning against the window and flipping through his porn.

The copy-nin immediately looked up, noting the ANBU uniform and mask adorning Naruto's form and rapidly moved into a subtle defense position.

Before Kyuubi, Naruto wouldn't have noticed. But now his trained eye spotted the subtle shift of his mobile shoulders. Instead of the delight he had once had for his sudden skill, Naruto only felt guilty. Like he was stealing.

"It's me, Sensei." It was strange, why was Kakashi awake at four in the morning? "Is Hokage-sama here? I'm going to leave for my mission now, but he said to report here first…"

Truthfully, Naruto was more than a little nervous at this. He doubted Kyuubi knew about the falcon that had swung a scroll into his window last night, smacking his face and alerting him to his spur-of-the-moment mission near the edge of Konoha territory to destroy enemy shinobi crossing the border.

And with the fox snoring in his broken cage, Naruto was left to take control and take his place, something which he was more than just uncomfortable with. He had never killed in his life. He had never experienced what it was like to work on a real team, much less a skilled ANBU team. And he definitely remembered last time…

Noting his distress, Kakashi smiled. "Your mission was cancelled."

"Oh." The tense muscles eased in his shoulders.

"The Hokage is out on business and won't return until the afternoon. I'm here to tell you of the latest information we've received."

Naruto blinked, and for a brief moment was confused, until he apprehensively asked, "Tell me? Or tell…" He averted his eyes behind his mask. "Kyuubi?"

"You." Kakashi answered immediately. "And I don't want you to take this wrong, Naruto."

Instantly he stood rigid.

"You can take your mask off, too." Kakashi eyed him, voice light. He must have noticed that it was making him uncomfortable.

Naruto pulled it off carefully, watching his teacher. Once Kakashi could see the mixture of expressions in his eyes, he knew the blond wasn't taking this well.

"What is it, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked slowly, looking for any sort of hint as to what he might be saying.

"This year the Chuunin Exams are going to be held in Konoha." He stated matter-of-factly, and Naruto began to wonder how this pertained to him. "And obviously," he began again. "We can't simply write Kyuubi down as one of our ANBU."

Naruto's confusion wavered, before returning. "Okay…What does that have to do with me?"

"Naruto," Kakashi sighed. "You can't participate in the Exams, seeing as though _you_ are already listed as ANBU instead of Kyuubi. It would be a moot point and many countries would see it as cheating."

Evident relief washed over his features. "That's alright." Naruto shrugged, smiling. "I didn't really want to participate in them, anyways."

"There's more to it than that though," Kakashi shook his head. "What I'm trying to say is that Sasuke and Sakura will be joining the Exams, but you can't."

"What?" Naruto blinked. "But then, how would they compete? They can't be on a two-man team, can they? That's not fair to them!"

"You're right." He began. "It's not. The problem is that until the Chuunin exams are over, you won't be able to stay on the same team as them."

Naruto's world broke.

Sasuke and Sakura, as much as they didn't seem like it, were almost everything to him. In the academy, he was friendless, occasionally being able to play with Konohamaru and his mismatched friends, but feeling emancipated from their group due to the difference in age. When he finally was recruited into a team, he was delighted to spend so much time with people his age, eventually beginning bonds with them. Their time in Wave had only strengthened this.

Now, with Kyuubi's ridiculous hours and sporadic missions at every interval of the day, he was slowly losing his precious people, swallowed by the cold world of death and ANBU, surrounded by killers who feared him, even those who were on his side.

And now, he would have to sever those ties even more.

"They'll get a replacement?" He asked faintly.

"Yes. There's a lone Gennin who passed in very…unconventional ways." Kakashi struggled to hedge around ROOT's rules and shinobi curriculum. "He'll be joining their team for the time being, until the Chuunin exams are over."

Naruto sighed, smiling. "So I'll be able to join them afterwards again?"

"Well," Kakashi hated to break the boy's heart like this. Even though Sakura didn't see much past Sasuke's dreamy eyes, and Sasuke didn't see past his hatred, they were the closest Naruto had to family. "There's a good chance you will."

"What do you mean?" The blond stopped fiddling with his mask, to fearfully watch his teacher. "It's not a hundred percent?"

"If Sasuke and Sakura don't pass, they may be transferred to other teams. Gennin teams normally break up after the exams, due to some teammates advancing to Chuunin while others don't. The remaining Gennin are then resorted, and tried for the next exam."

Naruto morosely stared at his feet, clenching his hands against the smooth cold of his mask.

"And you may also spend more time as ANBU, maybe even branch out to Hunter-nin, or even become captain and have a squad of your own."

"Kyuubi?" Naruto snorted incredulously. "And a team? I doubt that."

"Kyuubi won't be the only part of you qualified for ANBU for very long, Naruto." Kakashi implied seriously. "Your skills have grown immensely."

"But that's not because of anything I've done." Naruto muttered guiltily as he plopped into one of the chairs in the office.

Kakashi sat opposite of him, smiling slightly. "You know Naruto this eye of mine wasn't always mine. It belonged to a dear friend. Sometimes, I wonder if having this is the same as cheating. The Sharingan can copy anything it sees, so I'm essentially stealing other's hard work."

Naruto looked up interestedly, watching him closely.

"But that's what being a ninja is all about. Shinobi use any method they can to advance higher than anyone else. Even if you feel you don't deserve this power you have, it _is _yours, and you shouldn't feel bad for having the upper hand from your peers."

"I guess…" Naruto hedged quietly.

"And anyways, I suppose you should head to the bridge." Kakashi mused aloud, standing up.

Naruto narrowed his eyes petulantly at his teacher. "And shouldn't you?"

"Ah, well," Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, calling over his shoulder as he leapt out the window. "I might get lost on the road of life before then."

The river warbled under the red bridge like a jubilant water sprite, occasionally spraying mists of mountain water when it crashed into rocks near the bridge. Sakura pet her hair in annoyance as another flitter of water sprinkled her face. Last week's inordinate rain was the cause of this, no doubt. Team meetings had been cancelled ridiculously, mainly due to both Kakashi and Naruto's inconsistent attendance. Lately, Sasuke had also been skipping these meetings to train solo, making Sakura waver alone many times. Usually Kakashi stopped by at least once, shaking his head at the lack of teammates, and giving Sakura a quick hour lesson before moving on his way.

Today however, Naruto stumbled to meet her, grinning sheepishly as he nearly tripped on the edge of the bridge.

"Idiot." Sakura hissed, even though she was alleviated to see him,.

Naruto blinked in shock, registering the fact that yes, Sakura was here.

Sakura….

Her pink hair was straight and smooth, and it looked as if she had tried hard to keep it that way. Even though her lips were pursed in irritation, her eyes were filled with something Naruto didn't think he'd ever see her look at him with; relief.

Sakura symbolized the life he could no longer have. Worriless, with the sole dream to receive recognition, to protect his friends, and to win her over.

Now, he had the recognition, even if it wasn't him who had achieved it. He could protect his friends, but soon he would be leaving them all behind. And now, Sakura was no more then a fair acquaintance, no longer an unrequited love interest.

His azure blue eyes fell to the floor as he noted the particular emotion in Sakura's eyes.

It was something he wouldn't be able to give to her for long.

"Naruto?" She frowned exasperatedly, twirling a lock of hair around her fingers. "God, you space out a lot."

He shook himself from his reverie. "Oh, sorry Sakura-chan."

She only continued to stare him down, as lemon colored hair was strewn across his face in the wind. The blonde was watching something far in the distance, far beyond the stratosphere.

"Where have you been?" She demanded angrily.

He blinked at her, opening his mouth and closing it as if he contemplated what to say, and what not to say. "I dunno… I've just been busy." He opted for, lamely.

Sakura scoffed. "Busy enough not to go to team meetings? Now Kakashi-sensei regularly misses and doesn't even stay for very long, and Sasuke-kun stays home and trains alone!"

When he didn't answer, (only stared at her with those sad, remorseful eyes that made her writhe in ounces of guilt) she hissed furiously to herself, "Perhaps it would be better if I did the same."

"Sakura," he began quietly, and she noticed with some confusion the dropped suffix to her name. "I'm not—

"The dobe is back, I see." Sasuke's sandals clattered on the bridge's wood, hands pressed into his pockets.

"Uchiha." Naruto didn't bother with their usual banter, or rivalry. For some reason, his heart wasn't in it.

"Uzumaki." He greeted, albeit coldly.

Naruto turned back to Sakura with dowsed fervor, mournfully watching her tilt her head and her pink bangs slide from behind her ear, opening his mouth when once again he was interrupted.

"Oh, all the ducklings are here today!" Kakashi smiled, as he walked out of a cloud of smoke.

The three Gennin eyed him warily; one with vague annoyance, the other with unveiled annoyance, and the last with something more like exasperation from once again being interrupted.

It was then that Naruto caught sight of the scroll that had taken the place of Kakashi's usual obnoxiously bright orange porn.

The Jounin tapped it on Naruto's head, before handing it to him. "I guess it wasn't cancelled after all, huh?" He smiled, but it was only seen in the crinkle of his eyes.

Naruto sighed. "Suppose not."

With that, he turned, beginning his awkward walk away from his team.

The other two stared in bewilderment, before finally, Sakura icily crossed her arms and frowned, retorting loudly, "Why does Naruto get all these missions and we don't? Aren't we a team?"

The word 'team' made Naruto flinch, shuffling his feet faster.

As he rounded the corner, he could hear the beginnings of Kakashi saying, "Well, I've come here to talk to you about that…"

Even if Naruto couldn't hear much behind the sound of his heart breaking, and couldn't feel much besides the sharp pieces of his heart cutting into his chest and clogging his throat, he could hear the guttural snarl as the beast inside him woke up to take the mission.

This time, as Kyuubi leapt into his skin, easily adjusting into the smooth gait that resembled a powerful lion watching a world of mice scamper between its paws, Naruto only felt abatement at finally slinking into the back of his consciousness, undisturbed by his world shattering around him.

—

—

The new team seven didn't look nearly as good with Sai on their team.

Of course, dreamy eyed Sasuke with his suave hair and smooth alabaster skin was still breaking hearts he didn't know existed. Sakura still had pet-able fresco pink hair, and while she didn't hold a candle to Yugao's ability to keep her hair immaculate whilst moving about, she still had the dainty air of a young girl about her, with her gummy pink smile and bottle-green eyes, lithe figure swamped by her curve-less red dress.

And then, of course, Sai. With his fake smile and weird tan lines from wearing half a shirt all year, looked strange standing next to what used to be his teammates.

Naruto averted his eyes as they crossed paths on the street, wishing Kyuubi could take over because watching them _hurt_. Even with their team dynamic off-kilter due to a certain loud-mouth blonde's disappearance, Sakura still scampered behind Sasuke, who had his hands in his pockets and was sighing considerably. Sai walked near Kakashi, who seemed to be keeping his distance to the strange new member of his team.

"Towa," Kakashi greeted, to the man who walked with Naruto.

They had returned from a mission, Kyuubi promptly complaining of, 'too much human stink' (which was strange, because apparently while blood smelt good, humans didn't?) and retreated to his broken cage for a nap. This left Naruto struggling to keep the appearance of one of Konoha's most dangerous new ANBU as he walked to the tower with his teammates.

Towa nodded to Kakashi, "Sempai." He waved a hand, gesturing to his team to carry on without him.

Team Seven watched in something akin to awe as the ANBU walked past them.

"Sensei," Sakura whispered in morbid fascination. "Who are they?"

"ANBU." Sasuke scoffed, even if his dark eyes were trailing their every move.

"They're the elite protectors of Konoha, Sakura." He ruffled her hair, and she squawked in indignation.

Naruto bowed his head in both shame and embarrassment, trying hard not to listen to his team, even though he was failing ridiculously.

"I don't trust them." Koga hissed, eying the young emotionless boy on the team. "_Ne._"

Yugao skewered him behind her mask. "They've been disbanded." She said flatly. "Don't get worked up over it, rookie."

Koga only seemed to glower in her words, huffing and turning away.

"I still don't think Kakashi-sempai enjoys one on his team." Towa remarked, as if helping Koga's point.

"What is Danzou thinking?" Yugao murmured, before noticing their captain waiting for them at the entrance to Hokage's tower. "Yamato-taichou." She bowed, and they followed suit.

He waved a hand. "All Jounin have been called to a meeting," He said by way of greeting. "Since none of you have a Gennin team, I don't suppose you have to go, but since none of us have a mission…"

His eyes flickered to Naruto's masked face. "And I think some of us would like to know the Chuunin Exam nominees from Konoha."

Naruto stiffened at the blatant singling, but said nothing.

Towa sighed. "What's it matter, anyways?"

The other two seemed to give noncommittal shrugs, so Yamato lead the way to the meeting area. The ceiling was buffeted by large cloths that hung about like hammocks and gave the air a stuffy, humid feel. Many Jounin were gathered on the center of the rocky flooring, and Naruto could make out Kakashi's puff of silver hair from amongst the crowd. Like most ANBU, Yamato's team stayed hidden above ground level, or at least, Yugao, Koga, and Towa did. Naruto had flopped himself on one of the pillars that held the ceiling together, eying his Jounin-sensei closely, sitting frog-like resting on his haunches, elbows on his knees.

The Hokage coughed once, bringing the attention of the room to the center point.

"Now," He began. "First we'll hear from those who are watching over the new Gennin."

Kakashi, Sarutobi Asuma, and Yuuhi Kurenai stepped forward.

Sandaime nodded. "Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai. Well? Are there any Gennin you'd like to nominate for the exams?"

"Team Seven, Uchiha Sasuke, Sai, and Haruno Sakura," Iruka sputtered the loudest, and many seemed confused. "Under the name of Hatake Kakashi, I nominate them to take the Chuunin selection exam."

Many were almost…pleased by the missing name in Kakashi's infamous team seven. Naruto couldn't help the disappointment he felt when he heard the positive murmuring of his absence.

"Team Eight, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino. Under the name of Yuuhi Kurenai, the same as to my left." The Genjutsu mistress inclined her head.

"Team Ten, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, and Nara Shikamaru, under the name of Sarutobi Asuma, the same as to my left."

"All of them," Muttered the Hokage, so soft only Naruto could hear him. "How rare…"

Iruka pushed to the forefront. "Hold on a second!" He cried, and Naruto felt his heart leap to his throat. "Hokage, please let me have a word!"

"What is it, Iruka?" The Hokage asked calmly.

"I might be speaking out of line," He began quietly, shaking a bit. "But most of those nine were students of mine at the academy. Of course, they are all very talented, but it's too early to take the exam."

He averted his eyes, Naruto felt himself freeze. "They need more experience. I can't understand their teacher's reasoning."

Naruto clenched his hands onto the rough bark of the pillar he was stationed on. He felt Yugao and Yamato train their eyes onto him, and he bowed his head. Iruka's heart was in the right place…but it was a moot point now. He only hoped Kakashi wouldn't say anything to his former teacher.

"I became Chuunin when I was six years younger than Naruto." Kakashi reminded suavely.

"Naruto is different then you!" Iruka shouted back.

_Am I? _Naruto mused softly to himself. Already was he an ANBU, whether it was him or Kyuubi, to the public, it was the same. _They _were the same. He was just as much of a killer as the fox who stole his body. His eyes slid shut. Unnoticed by the blond, one of his fellow ANBU caught the motion, and how his limp hair fell into his face, with hands clenched that signaled his distress. Naruto, furious at himself (when had he become such a wuss?) snapped his eyes open. While, unable to focus on the meeting bellow him, was able to tell himself with much conviction that he wouldn't look back anymore. He wouldn't think about the 'what ifs'. The seal was broken, and was never going to be fixed.

The Jounin filed out slowly, while many of them simply disappeared in clouds of smoke, the ones who didn't seemed to be taken their sweet time.

Yugao had been surreptitously beckoned by the Hokage during the ceremony using ANBU code, and she had thought it best to wait until the crowd thinned before following.

Towa and Koga had immediately left via Shunshin, while Naruto had leapt down—obviously disheartened by something—and meandered almost aimlessly to a billowing flap in the tent and lead himself out.

When the last few mingling Jounin walked out, Yugao jumped from the shadows confines and bowed before the Hokage.

"You wished to see me?" She asked respectfully.

The Hokage nodded, taking a lung full of his pipe before replying. "I see you are on…conciliatory levels with Naruto-kun."

Her brows furrowed beneath her brows.

While she was placid with him, and not openly antagonizing him like Towa and Koga did, she would not consider them even the slightest of acquaintances, they didn't have any foolish quarrying like the two moronic boys. In fact, there relationship was nothing but mutual understanding.

"I suppose…" She answered vaguely.

He leaned over his desk, and she saw the unquestionable unease in his tired eyes. "He's having a lot of trouble in coping between his normal life and his ANBU life, according to my reports."

Yugao didn't have to guess to know who reported daily to him.

"And I know there aren't many people he opens up to," Unbeknown to the female black-ops, Sarutobi's worry regarding Iruka's brash words (whether unknowingly or not) and Naruto's reaction to them was near palpable. "And even fewer with his new circumstances, let alone the fact that he's a Jinchuuriki at all. Kakashi, I'm certain, is one of them. However, he's currently stationed in Iwa for the duration of the next to days. And while Naruto has many friends his age, none of them are aware of Kyuubi, or of his status as a black-ops, and I doubt he's inclined to tell them. Also, I've noticed he's been steering farther away from them as of late."

Yugao nodded slightly, wondering when it would get to the part of the conversation relevant to her.

"—so, I'm imploring you to become acquainted with him, at least for the next to days." The Sandaime finished.

Uzuki blinked, once twice, and wondered if she heard right.

As if catching her sudden stiff and surprised facial expression, his eyes softened. "He needs a friend, Yugao."

Sadly, there wasn't much she could say to that.

Yugao fluffed her hair as she stepped out from the tent.

Her blond teammate and partial demon god plodded along sullenly a few paces in front of her. She could relate to his situation; she started ANBU young as well and new strain that pressed against his sanity right now, how it twisted and warped his morals into something if which he looked back upon, would realize just how horrid and frightening it really was. Naruto was young, but he presumably had his own set of morals. On more than one occasion in reports, she had read that never breaking promises and protecting his important people were traits he valued greatly. ANBU could easily break both of them (and she would be quite surprised if the job hadn't already).

But, she had never been a Jinchuuriki.

The strain of being in such a unique situation that only eight other people share must be a towering burden indeed. One she couldn't comprehend.

The thought gave another feral tug at her heartstrings, and she quickened her pace to approach the boy.

"Naruto," She called softly.

And behind the shifting mask she could see a relentless blue, the sky flickering behind the porcelain with the refracting light, and Yugao could clearly remember the young child as she crouched in the trees, miffed that once more she was made to look after Konoha's resident Jinchuuriki, her equally annoyed teammates playing cards on the academy rooftop. Mika smoothed out battered playing cards onto the coarse cement of the roof, one leg dangling as Ryuu cried aloud, floored at the royal flush. Beneath them, a young child with round fingers and defeated, limp, lemon colored hair swung desolately beneath the tree Yugao crouched upon.

While she certainly wasn't enthralled with this particular duty—one which most black ops under the Sandaime's regime were painfully familiar with—she took it seriously, smoothing out orchid tinted hair and eyes moving with the distant swish of the wooden plank, as the boy sullenly kicked his foot into the terse dirt.

This was Uzumaki Naruto, she was aware. He was small, malnourished on an explicit diet of ramen, eyes defiant and fiery brimstone, but bitter as he watched the other academy students. Above him, shrouded in the shadows of the tree's canopy, Yugao only sighed.

When the day closed, the ANBU stood in the shadows of the building, Yugao pressed against the Academy's outer wall, head bent between her knees until wisps of plum colored hair swathed her sandaled feet. Mika was stubbornly looking away from his defeated teammate, eyes peering into the distance, only wavering onto their young, unknowing charge for mere moments before he brought his gaze away. Like many of the black-ops who were assigned this task, the thought that Konoha wasn't as innocent as he'd like was restless and uneasy against his braved, battle worn heart. Ryuu tucked the cards into his breast pocket, watching the boy as well with a stony, impassive face.

This was nothing but a shred of peel against the tough, outer shell that the young, newly minted ANBU were yet to understand. The many secrets of Konoha that the Sandaime bore with heavy, weighted shoulders, ones that they would soon be tested against and ones that could perhaps waver their confidence, composure lost completely in the steadfast threads of Danzou's manipulations, between Homura and Koharu's Machiavelli principles and the Sandaime's weather-worn face.

"Uh?"

Naruto watched the woman in front of him curiously, as he stood nervously before her in the broad street. The Jounin had departed long ago, leaving the faint wind to rush past them, too far to leave anything more than a whisper to clear the heady silence.

The woman shook her head, hair amaranthine at the edges, like cyclamen and orchids blossoming in the sunshine.

"Sorry, I got lost in thought." She stood stiffly then, unsure what to say to the young, malleable child in front of her. "Listen, Naruto-kun, I know what you witnessed back there was probably a lot to take in, and hard to hear."

"A little bit, yeah." He confessed sullenly, suddenly keenly gracious for the mask adorning his face.

A bit unsure how to continue on, she fiddled with her hands—a horridly implacable habit she'd taken on some years ago, although never once had she used it in her many years of combat, yet facing down a distraught young preteen seemed to make her lose her countenance completely—"But your Academy teacher is only saying that because he loves you, and obviously cares enough about your welfare to go against the Hokage, and your Jounin-sensei. It doesn't mean that he thinks any less of you, or that he will, once he realizes your rank now—

At this, the young Gennin turned ANBU flinched back, as if recoiling from a physical hit.

—it only serves as an undeniable testimony to his love for you." Her eyes softened when she realized that this was probably effecting the boy much more then he'd show. "I don't think he'd think of you any less for being a black ops. In fact, I think he'd probably be proud of you."

"But, I didn't do anything to deserve it."

"That's the way of the shinobi." Yugao retorted without missing a beat. She'd think that he'd realize this fact by noting the 'borrowed' Uchiha eye that his sensei carried under his mask.

She bit back whatever she wanted to say, opting to stand anxious, conscious of the tense silence that spread over them. He was her colleague, perhaps not by choice, and she was his teammate, who surely hadn't the same relationship with him as his old ones.

And the young, plum-haired woman was certain not known for her tact. "You look hungry." She observed, whether this was simply a mild guess or an accurate prediction was lost in translation.

"Err—

"Come on," With lithe, long legs she strode ahead of him, almost cat-like as the smooth, honed contours of her body shifted as easily as the shadows against the pavement. "Ichiraku's this way." She beckoned him over behind her shoulder.

He followed, a bit confused, but overall content. Yugao was nice, she wasn't precisely the easiest to talk to, but her tactless, brutal honesty was rather refreshing compared to the sweetened words he'd heard for most of his life when speaking to genial people like the Sandaime or Captain Yamato, who usually tried to placate him by using large, endearing words to describe a not-so-endearing reality.

Instead, she'd tell it to him as straight as it was, sun setting to the west, rising in the east.

"She doesn't like you." The woman inputted bluntly, picking at her ramen with such innate delicacy the noodles seemed almost elegant in return. "And honestly, she sounds like a rather shallow girl, who shouldn't be a kunoichi at all."

"Sakura-chan's not that bad." Naruto defended lamely in the face of his wayward teammate. "I mean... she sure does like Sasuke, and sometimes that's all she really sees, but she's a good person, really."

"Really." Yugao echoed flatly, not believing this in the slightest.

"Really." Naruto persisted. "And I mean, I don't like Sasuke-teme very much, but..."

The boy trailed off, and behind ocean eyes was a fractured face, Sharingan wide, wide open like black fish in a crimson pond, _"My body just moved on its own...idiot..." _a shallow ocean of russet pooling at his feet and needles in his back.

"He's alright." The boy shrugged, finishing his trail of thought without an inkling to what he saw behind his iris. Yugao only cleverly held her tongue, watching his distinctly shaking hands from the corner of her eye.

"Teammates grow on you." She decided upon, as he nodded. "My team...I suppose I didn't like them much either. One was rather annoying, the other was too quiet. That's usually how Gennin team's are. You don't like them much."

"You and Yamato-taichou and Towa and Koga never talk about your Gennin teams." Naruto surmised, with sudden clarity of how little he knew about his new team.

The woman made a small noise in the back of her throat, as if she was considering the ways to avoid the subject. "By the time you're our age, you won't want to reminiscence about it very much."

"Oh..." Even without much for thoughtfulness and perceptive judgment of social cues, Naruto was aware that he had stumbled upon a topic which Yugao didn't want to discuss. He flushed in embarrassment.

"Anyway," She swiveled in her chair, to stand up and pull her hair out of her face. She had taken off her mask to place it at her hip, and he was struck with how human she looked without the demonic looking white skin over face. "Ramen leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I have some eelong tea that I think you'd enjoy."

"Tea." The blonde repeated with a scrunch of his nose. "Ew."

"You should learn to like it." She warned with a bit of mirth. "It shows elegance."

"It's bitter and tastes like dirt."

She rolled her eyes at his hasty retaliation, opting to instead stride in front of him and lead the way to her apartment. Once there, he seemed to flounder a bit in her entrance hallway, as if unable to comprehend that there was actually a person behind the mask. She wasn't entirely surprised, he'd never seen her without the cat over her face, and ANBU hardly appeared human with the mask on. Of course, Naruto always seemed to convey this sort of helpless humility to him, even with the blank sheen of porcelain covering the awareness of his eyes. But perhaps that was simply because he was young, and emotions were just as easily identified in one slender, mobile shoulder as they were in the distinct crease of an eyebrow.

While he peered curiously at pictures of her and Hayate, guffawing at the fact she even had a boyfriend, she slipped a bit of sugar into his tea and stirred it in until it swirled to the same shade as hers.

"It's good, isn't it?" She smiled with amusement, as he slurped his cup down and demanded more.

"It sure doesn't taste like the tea Iruka-sensei used to make me drink." He confessed with some amount of surprise. "It's really good; better than milk, even!"

"You should keep drinking that anyway, though." She reminded cautiously. "You're bones are still growing, you know."

"I know." Naruto rolled his eyes supposing he should be more annoyed at her mother-henning than he really was, perhaps because no one had ever really pattered about, worrying at him, and it was a pleasing sensation.

"Can I have more, you think?" He asked hopefully, as she only grinned wryly at him as she poured more tea for him.

A moment later;

"_That's disgusting!_"

—

—

Kyuubi smirked as he cleaned his blade.

The river cooled the air around its bubbling surface by a startling drop in temperature, one the ANBU resting near it took advantage of.

Kyuubi was closest to the river's edge, mask hiding his grinning and malicious features as the blade's surface shined his unwavering mask-eyes back at him.

Something about dead humans made him cheery, and maybe it was the fact that he killed them without Madara's influence.

The female was keeping her distance, no doubt the cause of this was due to her newfound relationship with Naruto. Kyuubi snorted. Humans were deceitful and brash creatures, and he never understood their need for compassion or companionship. One of them would die in the long run, anyway.

At least her presence was tolerable, unlike the bumbling male idiots that he sadly shared the team with.

Koga was laying spread eagle against the river bank, farther down where rocks didn't cliff the river's edge with jagged stone, but where it was mossy and soft and damp. He was near comical, sighing graciously for the sharp relief from the near hazy heat. Towa had reluctantly dipping his feet in, the action causing him to then dunk his entire head into the icy water. Yamato was out scanning the perimeter, which left Yugao to stand in charge. Said purple-haired female stayed immaculate, even washed with heavy waves of moisture and burning heat.

The team had been out for a full week on a mission almost inside the borders of Ame.

Sadly, the infamous rain country was experiencing one of its seasons rightfully called the steam season. The others were (in chronological order) the rain season, the rain season, and the rain season.

When Yamato finally dropped from one of the dense canopy towering far above their heads, the entire team shared a feeling of alleviation in unison.

The week had been to travel into the heart of Ame, the mission's actual base work much more of an espionage form, rather then the usual all out offensive the team usually took. (Yamato had suggested that this hadn't always been the case, and the team's major skill only recently changed due to Kyuubi's presence) And finally, after many days of simply sitting around in the sticky heat that clung like cobwebs—after impatiently waiting, Kyuubi finally got his chance for bloodshed and merrily stole the kills away from his willing ANBU teammates—they were finally going home.

"Probably because Hokage-sama wants to have as many ANBU as he can back home." Towa remarked as they began their journey, grabbing a branch and flipping himself over.

Yamato nodded, but said nothing.

"I don't get it anyway." Towa then sighed. "I mean, its just little shrimps going from being stupid to slightly less stupid. I remember when I was a Gennin, I can't believe how dumb I was."

"Chuunin was no better." Koga remarked, and Towa made a move to punch him.

"It's a smart move on the Hokage's part." Yugao sniped icily.

"Yes. The Chuunin Exams means many foreign diplomats and shinobi will be entering Konoha's borders. This is one of the few times Konoha experiences such large influx in visitors. Not only to keep the peace, but also incase of emergencies, ANBU should be near the village at all times." Yamato explained to his team, the two main culprits of such a lecture only nodded, successfully cowed.

Kyuubi looked forward to it. Demonic premonition, perhaps, but he was certain there would be some sort of bloodshed to partake in.

* * *

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y

_Btw, I have no OC characters in this fic. The ANBU are all listed ANBU._

_Uzuki Yugao-Purple hair. Hayate's girlfriend. Or something like that._

_Koga-One of the ANBU stationed during the Chuunin Exams in the manga._

Towa and Komachi-From the Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution game.


	5. Advice from a Caterpillar

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**ci**__t_**y**

**.**

**.**

_the _**QUIET **t**h**i**n**g**s **_t h a t _no one **e****v**_e_r _KNOWS_

_._

_._

The sky was curling at the edges, fisheyed and wrangled looking as black clouds twisted at the bottom of it a giant broken moon hanging limp and useless in the sky and a man with wild hair and a monster with a jaw that wrenched the world open bore each other down with their eyes made of rings and an abstract understanding of his purpose being fulfilled came to him and it was so close he could reach it just past his fingertips because the man with the thousand eyes and the demon who ate a thousand souls were all coming together, all coming together—

and broken by crack of a disturbance at his window.

Naruto sat up so fast he near fell out of his bed.

He gasped for breath, watching the crude knit of his worn, ragged carpet with eyes akin to the sky. On his mouth was the taste of blood—whose, he didn't know. In him, his blood churned and turned, around him, red hot chakra burned his skin and singed his sensitive nose.

After a moment or two of regulated breathing, he turned silently to the impassive mask which greeted him on the other side of his window.

The ANBU, unknown to the blond, stiffened at the sight of the demonic looking boy peering at him through the fringes of his golden hair.

"What do you want?" He rasped.

The ANBU held up a scroll, placing it on the window sill, before disappearing in smoke.

Mission.

The blonde groaned, choked, and spat up the coppery poison of human blood that lined his throat.

He wiped it with the back of his hand, growling like the demon he was slowly turning into, Kyuubi amusedly purring from the other side of their mental barrier.

"What the hell did you do?" He grounded out between razored teeth.

He honestly didn't know why he bothered, he never seemed to receive a reply.

.

.

.

Konoha's border with the ocean was composed of craggy rock faces and brittle trees, layered with coarse sand and surrounded by an immense and bright sky. To its right was the inaccurately named nation of River country, of which was only stricken with rivers a couple miles from its border with Ame, and the rest was nothing but desert spreading rapidly from Suna.

Yugao leaned into the back of her feet, hair immaculate even in the wavering morning dusty wind carrying sand and whatever else it could pick up through it.

Behind her was a nondescript shack, the looping road coming to a parallel with its groaning wooden planks. It had no door, but small paper fringes and a bell to signal customers. River Country was full of the small straw-thatched buildings, road-weary travelers using them daily as rest stops while going between Suna and Konoha. There were holes in the roof scraped by the wind, and the fence that once had stood proud and tall was withered into crooked logs of wood sticking up from the ground, tangled wires tucked into the sand from it.

Towa perched on one of the wooden stumps, scratching the back of his head and looking more dead then alive, and certainly not doing a decent job of his watching post.

Not that Yugao could blame him; they had been out here for the greater part of two hours by now, and hadn't moved once.

Koga, their usual negotiator, claimed illness and was currently in the hospital in a near fatal case of the flu. Or so he insisted. In reality, Yugao was sure that he was out hopping the border into Tea Country for a little one on one time with his on and off girlfriend. Of course, Captain, being the lovable and irrevocably gullible man he is, had readily allowed him the leave and ushered him over to the nearest medical facility. Usually she wouldn't mind, if not for the fact that Yamato could take _hours_negotiating on the half of Konoha, and consistently gave them a worse bargain then they came for. But, more important, took _hours_.

And then there was Kyuubi.

The demon hadn't moved for a full hour and a half, standing in sharp relief of the billowing dust clouds that swept past him, hair sandy-colored and almost darkened by the lack of sunlight.

Yugao frowned beneath her mask, and pulled a hand into her soft hair, giving it a good run through with her fingers before dropping it.

Towa sighed. "How much longer is he gonna take?"

She only skewered him with a look, but did nothing else to note his unprofessional attitude. Not that Towa was very professional, anyway.

Her gaze shifted back to Kyuubi, who was still peering off into the distance. It was strange not to be constantly berated with sarcastic remarks in equally sarcastic tones, and instead faced with a dense silence that strung like cobwebs, growing thicker and thicker as time made its slow weave.

The desert became still again, only the shifting dust in the distance providing any movement. Yugao's thoughts began to stray to home, as she wondered how Hayate was fairing. She didn't envy him, having to chaperon little Gennin and make half-assed attempts to save them from beating the other into a pulp. But then again, she certainly didn't envy herself either, standing on guard en route back to Konoha for nearly two hours now (no thanks to Yamato and his horrid negotiation skills) stuck with Towa the walking idiot and a demon god as company.

Certainly neither of the two were favorable options, and no doubt the moment they stepped into Konoha they'd be assigned an equally boring position not unlike Hayate's Gennin watching duty. Alas, that was the life of ANBU during Chuunin exams.

How monotonous.

Kyuubi's head whipped to the side in a quick movement of lemon colored hair.

She immediately followed his gaze, squinting into the barreling dust and sand, but saw nothing. Nor could she hear much else besides the muted whispers of grating sand in the distance.

Yamato sure knew how to pick places for rendezvous. No cover, and no visibility, and also, nothing to hear unless you happened to have demonic senses.

Towa hadn't even noticed that anything had changed, and had unceremoniously wedged a finger into his ear and begun to yawn. Yugao walked forward until the was almost a pace away from Kyuubi, eyes darting around the horizon line. Not much could be seen besides the hazy blue of the sky behind millions of grains of sand. Finally, after another unsuccessful sweep of the parameter, she tried to listen closer to the noises of the desert. However, her ears only met said noises.

She turned to Kyuubi, puzzled. "How can you hear anything over the dust?"

"I can't." He replied tonelessly, without missing a beat.

She frowned for a moment. The lines of his mask were eerily blank. "Then how do you know something out there?"

He made no move to answer her, only staring pensively into the distance. When she realized he wasn't going to reply, her eyes drifted back to the horizon line, diffused by the whorls of dust that looked almost like smoke. But, she couldn't see or hear anything.

Kyuubi turned around abruptly, sending a whip of sand onto her mask from his windy hair. "I can sense it."

Yugao tilted her head, pursing her lips in confusion and annoyance at being spoken to with such disrespect. What did he sense? A flare of chakra? No...then she'd have noticed too. Perhaps he focused his chakra to the earth like the Iwa-nin and could feel it shifting when walked upon. But in a desert, with constant movement of layers of earth, that was probably near impossible.

She watched him pass by Towa, who made a yelp about Yamato's orders that no one could enter. Kyuubi only pushed him backwards off the wooden pole and into the sand, to which Towa gave an undignified squawk, flailing as he did so. The demon didn't pause to survey the damage, lifting the paper flaps and heading into the shop wordlessly. Towa picked himself, muttering grumpily and rubbing the back of his head where the small ponytail at the nape of his neck was frayed with loose hair from his fall. Towa didn't bother to return to his post, opting to strut over to where Yugao stood, crossing his arms petulantly.

"What's his problem?" Towa glowered crossly.

Yugao only shrugged. "How would I know?"

"Whatever it is," He began tempestuously. "He doesn't have to be such an ass about it."

Yugao was sure that had Kyuubi been out hear to here it (or perhaps he could hear from the inside, and simply didn't care enough to act upon it) he would have punched Towa in the face. Although as of late, the demon had been more fair tempered...or as evenly tempered as a perpetually enraged demon god could be.

There were faint noises of sputtering—no doubt from an indignant shop keeper, who was now facing the full brunt of a demon's annoyance at the human race—and the signs of a cowed shopkeeper and the growls of an angered animal. Yamato's pacifying tones were washed away when the sound of a table upturning was heard. The clerk was yelping in fear now, and hurriedly sealing whatever deal Yamato had been trying to peacefully settle for the past two hours. Beside her, Towa gave another loud yawn that could rival her cat at home, completely oblivious to whatever scene Kyuubi was causing. Not that any of them could stop him from doing so, at any rate.

Kyuubi briskly exited the shop, Yamato slightly slower and with greater reluctance. However, he did have a scroll in hand as proof of their victory over seedy civilians.

Towa and Yugao watched the two of them approach, before Kyuubi pushed passed them.

Yamato followed him, and then so did Towa and Yugao with hesitancy.

"Not that I'm upset that we're leaving, or anything, but what's the rush?" Towa asked immediately, as Kyuubi began to lengthen his strides, whether out of haste or simply because he'd rather be as far away from Towa as possible was lost upon Yugao.

Yamato surely was frowning with his serious expression that crossed his face and furrowed his brows, but he didn't voice anything against their quick leave. So, Yugao decided to follow suit and keep her opinions silent.

Kyuubi growled gutturally, the sound near making her jump in its sudden and animalistic qualities.

A whirling cloud of smoke-like dust passed them.

And then small, blurred figures dotted the horizon. There was perhaps three or four, two medium height—taller then Naruto, but certainly smaller then Yamato, Towa, and Yugao—and one curiously short. Almost leveled with Naruto. Kyuubi made no other move besides beginning to sniff the air, almost in disdain. It was hard to make them out, as their small wraith-like forms were continuously buffeted out of sight by large columns of dust, but they appeared to be heading their way.

As they began to walk closer, the dark lines wavering in the movement of the dust, Yugao raised her katana dangerously.

"This is what I had hoped to avoid." Kyuubi sighed, more out of annoyance then any trace of fear or graveness of a meeting with enemy ninja.

Which was a first, seeing as though Kyuubi generally delighted in confrontations that may result in bloodshed.

Upon closer look, the figures were revealed to be Suna shinobi, probably from their height and the looks of the four man team they were a Gennin team. Yugao's sword faltered in its position, and Towa leaned back in obvious relief. While Kyuubi didn't seem to be showing much more than passing amusement and some amount of curiosity, he also wasn't lowering his slight guard.

Yamato studied them closely, before murmuring. "The Kazekage's children..."

Yugao blinked at him, before looking back to the children in front of them, that didn't look remotely related. One was blonde, a sour and contrary look on her pinched face, the other was a brunette under his dark cap, and had a look as if he had just seen two slugs having sex, with green spreading on his face. The last was emotionless, his blank eyes contrasting with his fiery red hair. Their presumed teacher, seemed to be shifting his weight in obvious nervousness.

"Konoha ANBU." He greeted, but his voice was high.

Yamato nodded. "Yes. And I presume, these are your students?"

"Ah, yes." He nodded once. And then twice, quicker. "These are Temari, Kankoro, and Gaara. We're on our way to the Chuunin Exams."

Yamato blinked owlishly at them, his mask tilting. "Now, these two I am familiar with. A diplomatic mission to Suna...Temari and Kankoro? The Kazekage's children?" He peered over to the redhead, who, if possible, looked even more blank. "And this is...?"

"The Kazekage's third son." The Suna Jounin coughed nondescriptly.

Yamato's brows were raised, but he made no comment.

As the Captain had easily shifted into his diplomatic persona, he hadn't noticed the flicker of the red-head's eyes, as he met Kyuubi's. The boys shoulders tensed, and he quickly looked away, stone-faced and intense-eyed, a look of confusion passing through the green irises, accompanied by fear. Kyuubi only smirked, stuffing his hands into his pockets. None of the party had noticed the display.

"Where's the rest of the Kazekage's entourage?" Yamato asked innocently, but clearly making some sort of statement.

The Jounin stiffened, before looking around. "We had to make a slight detour," His voice was carefully flat, but the blond girl's quick glance to her youngest brother was all the information Yamato needed. "I'd assume they were nearing Konoha's borders by now."

Yamato took that as the needed answer, ushering the rest of the team for their take off.

The Konoha ANBU waved their leave, before disappearing into the dust without so much as a forgotten footprint left in the sand.

.

.

.

When they reached Konoha's gates nearly six hours later and many miles apart, the team was wheezing. Konoha's crisp spring air was a welcomed relief from the dry and dense desert heat that seemed to weigh upon them.

Yugao shook her hair out daintily, the layers falling smoothly into shiny tresses, as she swiftly walked in front of the group. Yamato veered off to the left immediately, nodding to the awed Chuunin guards (you'd think, after months of ANBU going in and out they'd be used to this, or perhaps they were simply mystified by Yugao and her pretty hair) as he passed. Towa only grunted, much too tired for his common unprofessional antics.

Kyuubi however, had turned in the other direction, near the steps that lead into the city, and not too far from the lining of trees.

"See, that's an ANBU team." Kakashi was lecturing. "After passing the Chuunin exams, which I'm certain you'll all do fine in—" Kyuubi caught a quick glance at Sakura's face, which seemed to lose its pallor. "—You go on to the Jounin Exams, or you can immediately take your ANBU exams. ANBU is a much more demanding class of shinobi, and are considered the true protectors of their villages, generally taking on the hardest of missions..."

Kyuubi didn't bother to wait around and hear the rest of Kakashi's lecture on the importance of the Chuunin Exams, a feet that the Jounin was obviously doing the placate the pink-haired girl's nerves and strengthen her resolve—which was clearly backfiring—and sped up to catch up to his team some paces in front of him, until he was close enough that they all walked side by side.

"You may want to report to your Hokage," He drawled. "About those Suna-nin."

Towa snorted. "Oh? And not about how you scared off one of our only contacts in River Country which Hokage-sama specifically asked you _not_to do—

"Why do you say that?" Tenzou cut him off briskly, looking genuinely interested. Perhaps he had realized that Kyuubi's advice was always eerily correct.

"Its a bit strange, don't you think? That little red-headed boy...you didn't know he was the Kazekage's son? Isn't it strange to shield one child but not the rest from the public eye?" Kyuubi mused vaguely.

Before Yamato could ask anymore, Kyuubi made a sharp and abrupt left turn into the heart of the city, and was immediately swamped by a crowd of bustling people.

.

.

.

The air around him was sickly sweet with the taint of wild flowers blooming on every bush.

To many, the scent was a fabrication of lulling, beguiling voices of spring and the comely appearance of the flowers. To him, it was nothing but a migraine spiking through his nostrils with Kyuubi's high sensitivity to scent, making anything too strong smell repulsive.

Naruto pulled the mask out of his face and shook out his hair, which was still dusty from Kyuubi's earlier mission in River Country.

While Yamato bartered with the seedy shopkeeper, Kyuubi had begun to explain—with what little patience he had for his human alter ego—the mechanics of the demonic hierarchy and the class difference, including the other demon gods. The conversation may have been spurred by the fact that Kyuubi had smelt the bloodshed no doubt caused by another demon some miles away carried in the wind. While Naruto hadn't paid much attention, he did understand enough to know that Kyuubi was at the top of this chain. And obviously that meant that Kyuubi was much more powerful then the rest (of course, that same notion doesn't apply to his other, more human half). When they encountered the one-tailed beast, Kyuubi told him that at Naruto's current training, he was an equal match for the demon, probably reminding him that without him, Naruto would never be able to achieve the things he could now.

He closed his eyes, using the senses bestowed upon him from the day of his birth, which he only recently began to use, to follow his nose to the bridge. There was something strange about how Kyuubi had worded himself. Obviously the sentence was littered with pompous self absorbed comments, but he had called himself "the gatherer of the demons" and the "strongest part" instead of "the king of demons" and "the most powerful of demons". But Naruto shook his head, and chalked it up to Kyuubi inaccurately using human tongue, which wasn't too farfetched, seeing as he had only bothered to truly learn it weeks ago.

Sasuke had the smell of the outdoors, of a man who spent most of his life in the training grounds.

Sakura smelt the opposite, a mixture of sickly perfume, and the soft undertones of artificial honey and blossoms, probably from her shampoo.

Sai was peculiarly blank...his smell almost sterile, some sort of common perfunctory soap.

And the last one, Kakashi...well, he must have spent a long time watching Sakura and Sasuke in that tree, he was beginning to smell like oak.

Naruto plodded silently, being sure that he was out of sight, practicing navigating through forestry with only his nose.

Suddenly, he walked past a flowered bush, the repugnant scent sending him into a spiraling descent of wheezes and coughs, hacking up nearly his lunch in his futile attempt to choke the stink out of his system.

Sakura whirled around, and would have easily saw him, had he not hidden in a tree much faster then he could have ever moved before. Sasuke turned around immediately after, certainly not going to be bested by _Sakura_of all people, and his dark eyes swept the tree line as he scowled. Sai made no move to even bother, and hadn't moved from staring just past bridge's crossing red bars and the sky, a bit to the right of the tree Kakashi was reading in.

His old sensei hopped from the tree—no doubt to lead the three Gennin off of Naruto's trail— and greeted them with a smile and an entirely blasphemous excuse for his usual tardiness, to which Sakura screamed and made a swipe for his head.

Naruto was contemplating his next move when Kyuubi abruptly initiated the transfer, and he was pulled back into the craggy cell.

He sputtered indignantly, before recalling the deal. Kyuubi could have his body any time he pleased. Naruto frowned, as of late, Kyuubi had taken to sleeping and simply handing the body over to Naruto for most human interaction, leaving the killing for himself. It was strange that Kyuubi would actually want to have some sort of contact with things he considered to be completely beneath him. The demon swerved through the lined picket fences, expertly weaving through crowds and using his ANBU mask to avoid confrontation.

Naruto noticed that Kyuubi seemed to be following some sort of trail, and took note to sense the smells the next time Kyuubi breathed.

Whatever the demon god was following...it smelt familiar.

It reminded him of his strange dreams.

He stopped suddenly, and Naruto jolted when he realized that there was the same guy from their ANBU mission dangling Konohamaru like some sort of prey. He growled, and wasn't even bothered by the fact that he was turning more and more like Kyuubi everyday, only angered that someone was hurting Konohamaru.

"Leave." Kyuubi snapped coldly, and the blonde and the boy looked successfully cowed, dropping the Hokage's grandson in a hurry and hustling backwards.

The young boy too, scampered off, too scared to even thank him.

Kyuubi immediately looked into the tree, where Gaara's light eyes stared back at him unblinking and impassive. He also took note of the Uchiha, shrouded in the canopy of leaves. Whatever meeting Kakashi had held was obviously short, he probably just gave them the Chuunin Exam forms and left wordlessly, knowing Kakashi. But Naruto was more concerned by whatever Kyuubi was planning.

"Shukaku," The demon god near purred, as if somehow allured.

A demon.

Raging in the sky, its one eye gleaming with thousands of rings and its tails spread round and ripping the world apart at its seams.

Naruto cleared his head of the strange flickering images.

The boy stiffened, and while he appeared to understand on some level that his name was Shukaku, he didn't seem to full grasp the concept.

"No..." His voice was distant, as if he truly wasn't denying it at all.

Kyuubi turned to the Uchiha, amusement heavy in his voice. "And the Uchiha...do you think you're sly, listening in?"

Kyuubi seemed to ponder the young boy for a moment, as the young Uchiha clenched his jaw, looking away, dark hair covering his eyes in inky shadows.

"Perhaps some other time..." The demon king was muttering. "In the future...yes..."

He tutted before shaking his head. "But certainly not now." And then, louder. "I suggest you leave, don't you have somewhere to be?"

The Uchiha scowled, but knew better then to back talk to an ANBU.

Kyuubi turned back to Gaara, who stared back.

Eventually, the redhead averted his gaze, and Kyuubi smirked triumphantly. "No, you're not Shukaku." He tapped his chin thoughtfully, a very human movement that wasn't lost upon Naruto. "You're just a human."

Gaara seemed even more puzzled, if not downright confused.

Kyuubi turned away. "But not for very long."

.

.

.

"_Ri—"_

Naruto's lashes fluttered open, blue iris brighter then the sky in winter and shining like refracted sunlight.

His gaze trailed to the moon, where it rested longingly for sometime, the blond's unwavering, unblinking stare disturbing and eerie.

Finally, he pulled himself out, the eyes reverting to normal and Naruto blinking quickly, taken aback by the trance that had come over him. He rubbed his head and smoothed a hand over his hair, looking back up into the sky. The moon hung loosely, but it was full and heavy and weighed upon the stars. Mere moments ago Naruto felt like he never wanted to stop looking at it, but now, he only felt a vague sense of longing that he couldn't grasp, a torn and indecipherable feeling. Naruto chalked it up to being some strange Kyuubi centered reason, and decided to call it a night and get back to bed.

He awoke several hours later and slipped on his ANBU mask while scratching the back of his head.

His limbs ached from traveling the distance between River country and Konoha, protesting as he moved about and pulled his vest over his bare torso. It slid on perfectly, and he pushed his hands into his fingerless gloves, Konoha's emblem scratched onto the metal plate over his knuckles. When he looked at himself in the gleam of his window—the shutters had broken, and he hadn't bothered to buy new ones—he thought more and more how much this persona was Kyuubi more then Naruto. It seemed strange, and he flexed his hand, just to make sure it was him and not Kyuubi (he was having a hard time distinguishing nowadays).

The ANBU's location was a tall building, windowless and looked a bit like a massive tree house as it sprawled up into one of the larger tree's in Konoha. Contrary to the outside, which was composed of a mixture of wooden planks, and concrete, the inside was sleek and made from steel, and altogether gave a feeling of sterile hostility. While the ANBU headquarters was a building of the many in Konoha's deepest streets, its other bases were spread across the city, the current one located inside of a forest accurately named "the forest of death", one of the training grounds used by ANBU and high level Jounin.

Why they were using this particular man-eating plant infested forest for a Chuunin Examination was beyond him. He knew enough about the world of ANBU to realize that the class difference between an ANBU and a Gennin was equivalent to a rock to the moon.

The ANBU base was a little to the right of the Tower in the heart of the forest, where the Gennin were supposed to enter by an alotted amount of time, and covered in a Genjutsu that made it look like a highly poisonous vine that crawled up the tree, in hopes of dissuading anyone to come near it. Knowing stupid Gennin, this was highly unlikely.

Naruto wove his way around the base on instincts alone, trying to use his sense of smell to point out Yugao's floral scent. Not sickly and unnatural, like Sakura's, but chimerical in its soft flowery undertones.

He ended up meeting Tenzou first, the scent of wood nearly grafted onto his skin.

While it was a bit overbearing, the smell wasn't entirely uncommon for Konoha ninja who perpetually spent their missions in the trees.

"The Hokage has already briefed myself and the other ANBU leader's whose teams are chaperoning this task." Tenzou looked around, as Towa abruptly appeared from a clout of smoke, as did Koga. Yugao was walking up from behind him.

"So which one is it?" Naruto asked curiously, a bit more on the behalf of knowing what his friends were up against then knowing what his mission was.

Yamato looked at him sharply, as if knowing his motive. "The first task doesn't require any ANBU supervision—its located at the academy in one of the classrooms, and is a written test—unless ANBU captain's wish to scout for potential members—

At this, Koga snorted loudly.

And Towa mimicked the motion.

Captain sent them a look, before continuing. "The second takes place here in the forest. The Gennin will then have to make it to the central tower in five days, collecting two scrolls from the other Gennin teams. Our team and another will be patrolling during this task."

"Sounds easy enough." Towa shrugged. "So why do we have to watch the shrimps?"

"Its not like anything interesting is going to happen." Koga added with a scowl

.

Yugao ribbed him. "Doesn't matter. Hokage's orders." And then, in a lower voice, "Not that I'm looking forward to it."

Yamato said nothing, probably agreeing with the statement. Naruto was having mixed emotions on the whole thing, more concerned on how Team Seven was going to do. Surely Sasuke would be able to get past the first test—he was a genius...—and if it was a written test Sakura probably knew all the answers. Sai he just assumed was smart. And Sasuke was considered the best rookie Gennin, so he probably could get past the second test.

"What's the third?" Naruto asked abruptly.

Yamato watched him skeptically. "Well, the third is going to be a match up of the remaining Gennin. Starting with the preliminaries held in the tower, the finals will be held a month later at the stadium."

"So that's why Hokage-sama wanted so many ANBU back." Yugao frowned to herself in annoyance. "Rowdy spectators."

"That's it?" Towa asked in disbelief. "I'm sure there's a couple Chuunin around how could deal with that."

Koga nodded. "Isn't ANBU a bit overkill for this?"

Tenzou shrugged. "These are Hokage-sama's orders. Either way, there's another couple platoons who are going to be guarding during the Finals. I'd suspect that it will be a very light guard. In the meantime, we'll be out in Kusagakure killing off some wayward missing-nin!" Yamato clapped his hands in mock-happiness, and Towa wooped.

Yugao only rolled her eyes and fluffed her hair.

Naruto said nothing. He actually wanted to watch the finals...

And the first task, for that matter…

"Taichou," He began quickly. "When does the first exam start?"

"I'd think in thirty minutes." Yamato looked at his watch. "Maybe less. Depending on when Ibiki decides to show up."

Naruto remembered Ibiki. One of Kakashi's friends—but then, Kakashi had many friends in many weird places—and watched him peculiarly. He probably knew all about the Chuunin Exams. Maybe they were easier then they sounded...why else would he nominate Team Seven if he thought they couldn't pass?

Naruto abruptly bolted in the opposite direction, hoping to make a hasty escape over to the Academy.

Yugao watched him turn a corner, before she pivoted back to face Yamato. Koga and Towa had already fled, most likely to get a little more of their life as they could before they were all forced onto Gennin babysitting duties.

Yugao noticed Tenzou's face and sighed. "Should I follow?"

.

.

.

Sakura held her breath, and the air went still and stagnant around her, as if it whorled out the window into a vacuum in space. Sasuke's figure in front of her became diffused in the retrogade florescent lights from the ceiling above, and her head started to pulse in and out like a beating drum. Sai was next to her, that impassive look on his face and a strange twisted sort of smile that seemed more and more like a fake effort the more she saw it. She wearily put a hand to her head, and tried not to throw up. Some of the nominees must be way past twelve...eighteen, even! And they all stared at the young Team Seven hungrily.

Even when the rest of the nominated rookies came up to banter with them, Sakura only did so half heartedly. Not even when Ino launched herself at Sasuke did Sakura do anything besides half-heartedly banter with her. Sai was, as usual, quiet.

She felt herself awkwardly stare around the room, searching for Naruto. But he wasn't there.

Sakura gulped.

Maybe Naruto wasn't taking it this year.

"You guys need to keep quiet." A man walked up to their group, pushing up his glasses as he did so. He gave a sweep across the crowd of Gennin, and Sakura admired his face. He had a nice appearance, if not a bit shady looking. "You don't want to attract the attention of people around here, everyone can already tell you're all wet behind the ears."

Kabuto gave another glance at each of them, as if to instill some sort of fear. Sakura was successfully scared by it, but him and Sasuke seemed to duel each other with their fierce glares. Eventually though, Sasuke only growled and turned his head, and Kabuto had a perverse smile on his face that made Sakura's toes curl in what certainly wasn't _pleasure_.

He showed them some cards, to which Sasuke immediately asked for Rock Lee, that odd boy who had proclaimed love to her, a girl he had barely met. Sakura decided it was better not to bring that up though. Sasuke again asked for another character, a Hyuga Neji, to which Kabuto easily produced another card.

They were on the same Gennin Team, along with another girl named TenTen. Sakura scanned the crowd, and found the three of them staring back. She quickly brought her gaze down.

Sasuke opened his mouth, surely to ask for another, but Ibiki came in and began to shout at all of them, making Sakura near jump in her boots. The man was ferocious, eying them like maggots under his boots—and calling them so a couple times—and instilling more fear then she thought she was capable of having.

As he explained the rules, Chuunin began to file into the room,inspecting the Gennin and holding clipboards. Ibiki said that they were there to determine that none of the students cheated. Sakura frowned. That sure was a hefty amount of shinobi for just that.

"You have three strikes," Ibiki growled at them all. "On the third, one of the Chuunin will escort you and your team out."

Protests began to voice into the air, and Sakura shuffled over to where Sasuke had his arms folded close to the wall of Chuunin. She clasped her hands tightly behind her back, trying to feel comfort by his presence near her. It wasn't working. Not wanting to watch Ibiki rage at her and the other Gennin, her eyes trailed to the door they had come in by, and the windows to the opposite wall.

The two Chuunin she stood in front of had begun to whisper to themselves.

One made a vague nudge-like gesture to the far wall.

There was a flash of cloth, and a man—no, boy—fully clothed in black leapt into the room from an open window. A masked woman with beautiful long purple hair followed him closely.

"That's Kyuubi, isn't it?" The Chuunin whispered, beady eyes following the young ANBU with an unfaltering and jealous gaze.

The one next to him, a bandage over one of his eyes hummed his agreement. "Yeah. He's pretty young. Meko from the mailing center said that he's younger then Itachi, even."

Sasuke stiffened.

"You think so?" The two watched the ANBU lean against the wall, the masked boy was surreptitious, and Sakura doubted that if she hadn't been standing so close to the Chuunin to hear their conversation she wouldn't have noticed his presence at all.

Attuned to her surroundings more, she began to scan the crowd that wasn't made up of Gennin. The Chuunin proctors were lined against the wall, but sometimes in the shadows Sakura could catch glimpses of glinting white masks.

Team Seven moved to their seats with the rest of the Gennin wearily, and Sakura hedged closer to Sasuke.

"Do you really think his name's Kyuubi?" Sakura asked in disbelief, evidently remembering her history classes. "Why would someone name their child that?"

Sasuke looked at her slowly, as if talking to a slow dim-witted child. "ANBU chose their own codenames." He told her as patiently as he could.

Cowed, the pink-haired girl looked down.

"Kyuubi is a name that inspires fear." Sai mused aloud, much to the surprise of his teammates, that had only heard him speak a few times. "That ANBU was smart to use it."

The two watched him with gagged bewilderment.

"Or maybe it doesn't have much to do with smarts at all.." He seemed to speak to himself, before he turned abruptly into his row.

Sakura observed him for another moment, before she two ducked into her row, leaving Sasuke to walk up to his in the near back. Sakura wished hers was that far. She was worried about the questions on the test...of course, she had studied impeccably in the Academy, so surely she would do well. But what happens if she didn't?

As the test was passed out, Sakura sighed in relief when she noticed that all of them were ones she knew, or at least, ones she could figure out.

She could only hope her teammates were fairing the same.

**d**o **n**t **l**o **o**k **a**w **a**y

* * *

_I'm running in a new direction that fit better with the manga. good? no?_


	6. Pig and Pepper

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**c**__**i**__t_**y**

**-**

**-**

_I realize the screaming pain((doyouremember))_

_-_

_Hearing loud in my brain((theskyoftears?))_

_-_

_But I'm going straight ahead, with this heart_

**S**akura shivered unconsciously against a nonexistent wind, and leaned closer to Sasuke. Said Uchiha only took to sidestepping away from her. Her arms clasped around her and she looked around the sprawling mass of canopy and dark tree trunks that stood up like castle spirals into the sky. The forest was much more ominous up close then it was when seeing it from across a training ground or two. Standing mere inches from its towering grated gates made her want to flinch and step back, if not for her keen awareness to the crowd of people closely pressed near her.

The Gennin had taken to huddling closer together, or at least, most of the rookies did. A much older team from Grass kept their distance, and Sakura's eyes would wander towards what seemed to be the leader figure, who would lick her mouth and stare back hungrily. Her arms curled around her tighter. Her eyes darted to Sasuke, who had a perpetual scowl on his face and his hands digging into his pockets. She wanted to tell him, but she thought he'd only glower at her and snort at her childish insecurities. Sai was no comfort at all, either. The other boy was leaning on his heels with a fake smile on his face, head tilted up to some of the higher trees in the forest.

Anko was yelling out the directions, but for some reason, trying to listen to her made Sakura want to hurl. Maybe because she was going to be stuck in this forest for a couple of _days _with no food, fresh water, or, and most importantly _bug repellent_ with only Sai and Sasuke to keep her company. The latter of which would usually cheer her up, if not for the fact said Uchiha was irritated at her more then usual.

"Sakura," Sasuke snapped, and Sakura whipped her head and noticed several Gennin moving in a slight wave to a registration area. "C'mon."

She nodded and followed him to the booth, her hands shaking when she realized they were signing more forms. Forms that clearly stated death was common in such a course. Sasuke signed his quickly, and Sai did his without an emotion flickering on his face. Sakura was relieved that the other Gennin seemed to have a little more heart, and were wavering to sign.

"Sakura." Sasuke called from the other side of the tent, looking a bit irritated at her dawdling.

She gulped, and penned her name down.

And hoped she wasn't making a mistake.

Naruto watched the ROOT member stare at him from the ground with unnerving consistency closely. Yamato was right; there was something clearly different about this Sai. Not only did he smell too...blank to seriously be a Gennin but he also had an evident difference of skill then his peers.

Yugao leapt next to him, and from his spot crouched with his elbows on his knees he had to peer up to even make out a brush stroke of purple against the trees.

Towa landed to his left, looking particularly unhappy about the entire situation. The two had been on a large loop of the perimeter, mainly to get a feel of the forest. Naruto went twice, trying to remember as many landmarks as he could. The rest of the ANBU were at an advantage, as many had trained here prior to the exams. The forest was even occasionally used in practice recon missions, or that at least was why Koga claimed he already knew the forest and didn't need to make rounds. (Naruto had a vague feeling it was due more to the fact he was lazy)

"Anything interesting?" Naruto asked the woman with a light voice, who careened to look at him curiously.

"Not very, Naruto-kun." She replied. "I don't think much of this exam is going to be, either."

Training Ground number forty four was set up to be ideal for forceful takeover mission training. The tower at its center had no easily accessible windows or doors, but had been abandoned as a regular ANBU training hub due to its obvious route _to _the tower. If one followed the river long enough, the tower would be in sight in approximately forty minutes. Twenty five if you were Towa, who had found a short cut through a couple broken logs and under a bridge or two. For Gennin, the alotted time would probably be just perfect.

Naruto felt himself drift off into thought as the Gennin below him were separated into different entrances. His musings only fully halted once Koga began to speak.

"This is getting ridiculous, we're supposed to be out doing the cool work." The childish ANBU snorted, showing his obviously shallow interests. "That's why I became ANBU in the first place."

"That's a pathetic reason." Yugao spat. "_I _became a black-ops because _I _wanted to protect my village and prove my worth."

"I joined because of the mission pay." Towa interrupted.

"I joined because I didn't have a choice." Naruto admitted, sheepishly.

Yugao huffed and crossed her arms, standing up in one fluid, graceful motion and tilting her head back. "I excuse Naruto." The boy smiled from behind his mask. "You two bumbling _idiots_, however, disappoint me. Those are sorry excuses."

Naruto wanted to point out that Towa and Koga were hardly stellar examples of ANBU at all. If he had to choose one, it would most certainly be Yamato. A worthy adversary to any enemy and a loyal Jounin of Konoha. Also, it helped that the man had rigid straight priorities, most of which more righteous then Naruto could understand. While Naruto couldn't really understand how someone could be such an honest, well-doing person and still be a ninja, Yamato, compared to the unsavory company of ROOT and, well, most elderly people in Konoha in general (Danzou, Homura, and Koharu, the council who hated him, the lady at the corner store, his landlord...) there really wasn't much of a contest.

"They're moving." Towa surmised eloquently, as a stumbling team of rookie Gennin and a dog leapt into the forest at their fastest speed.

Naruto stood at this, as Yugao placed the speaker to her mouth as she belted out orders to the other ANBU squadron in the forest, situated at the other far entrance.

She clicked it shut and motioned to the team. "Alright, rendezvous at fourteen hundred with Team Aoi."

Yugao ducked into the forestry with ease, Koga and Towa languidly following after her. Naruto watched her disappear for a moment, before slipping his mask fully in place and tilting himself over the branch, letting his feet slide until he nearly fell off before pushing into the darkened forestry.

Once inside the deep, almost alive forest, the two opted to split up into two groups. Captain Tenzou was scouting alone, and Towa and Koga were going to take the left parameter to meet up with him on the other side. The whole forest—if navigated correctly—could be easily spanned in the course of an hour. For clumsy Gennin unfamiliar to its prominent trees and poisonous, man eating plants, the given days were probably sufficient.

"We'll be going to circle the route Taichou already scouted out." Yugao motioned in the general direction of the right side of the forest. "To keep a particular eye on the some of the Gennin. We're not to interfere, of course. Much less so with our own Gennin."

At this, she grumbled, as they took off into the trees, Naruto listening attentively to her. "The last thing we need is for some idiotic fool to accuse Konoha of foul play."

"Does that happen a lot?" Naruto asked curiously.

Yugao blinked in surprise at his honest interest. She wondered if he was actually showing an aptitude for politics, or simply concerned over his friends who were taking the exam some miles below them.

"I suppose not." She began carefully. "But all the same, we shouldn't interfere. No matter what you see, it's best not to get involved."

"Are there any rules to what Gennin can't do?"

She shook her head. "Not particularly, no. The exams are meant to simulate real Shinobi-experiences. There certainly aren't any no-killing rules on our missions, so the exams are meant to replicate that 'anything goes' kind of situation. It's why the teams all have to sign all those forms, because more ninja are likely to die in the Chuunin exams then in any other promoting examination."

Naruto felt a sick twist to his stomach as he thought of Sakura's stricken face from far below as he watched his ex teammates and other Gennin line up to listen to Anko holler about. The girl looked as if she hadn't the slightest idea what she had signed up for; completely terrified. He had hoped that he could weasel a couple scrolls in for her here and there, and maybe helpful hints, but he realized quickly that such cheating would never be allowed.

"Why are the Chuunin exams so much harder then the other ones?" He asked despite himself.

"It's not that they're harder." She explained as they rounded a sharp corner, beneath them, he was positive he heard Kiba yelp to Shino about some plant they had stumbled upon. "But the ninja who take them are simply more inexperienced. You were thinking of taking these exams once, what did you think they would be like?"

Naruto shrugged. In all frankness, he hadn't ever thought too much about the Chuunin examinations. He had always figured he'd rise up the ranks and be Hokage, without sorting out the details. Obviously these ways of promotion were one of the 'needless details'. However, seeing as though he had bypassed them altogether anyway, he supposed they really were needless details.

"I don't really know." He confessed, careful to keep his step in time with Yugao's. "I always figured they'd be tough...I definitely didn't think it was such a big deal."

Uzuki only chuckled in mirth. "They're a main attraction. People come from all around the five countries to watch and participate. They certainly don't make such a show of the Jounin exams, or the ANBU, for that matter." This was common shinobi knowledge, of course. Naruto could be so clueless at times.

–

–

Two days in, and nothing specifically interesting happened. They met up with Tenzou some hours into the second day, who had stopped to make a cozy hut at the top of one of the large trees in the forest. It looked ridiculously comfy, and Naruto was infinitely jealous of his Mokuton Jutsu, as was Yugao. Apparently Yamato's ability to create houses on missions was a bit of a legend in ANBU, another reason he was so highly sought out as a captain.

And Naruto could see why—he'd rather stay in a log cabin then the forest floor any day.

The two stopped in for a bit, as the captain made himself comfy without the company of his two noisy comrades, propping himself up on the roof of his little cabin with a sandwhich and a pair of sunglasses. The cabin was so high that rays of sunlight seeped down onto it.

"It'll become nothing short of a legend, I'm sure." The woman began with a laugh as they stepped inside to survey the wooden furniture. "I remember the hut you built near Kumo was, too."

"Ah, good piece of work there." Said their lazy captain with some amount of pride. "Maybe they'll make this into the new ANBU headquarters for the forest."

"I hope not. This should be our secret spot!" Naruto had shouted, charmed and awestruck by the possibility of making a house with Jutsu. Captain Yamato was simply amazing.

When he spoke this thought out aloud, the man contorted into chuckles, as Yugao berated him for inflating the man's already inflated ego.

Afterwards, the two made a couple more laps around the forest, stopping to check out cool plants and to tease the awkward hairstyles of some of the Gennin below them. Certainly not the uptight attitude that Yugao would have liked, but she had decided to humor the young boy. He was much better company than Towa and Koga, at any rate.

Speaking of the two black ops, Yugao and he split from TweedleDee and TweedleDum in order to watch the team from Suna closely. Naruto remembered the encounter with the blonde girl and the puppeteer quite clearly. The monstrous redhead, as well. Kyuubi stirred restlessly in his mind, and Naruto was acutely aware that the fox was scheming something or other.

"Why are you so happy?" He asked bluntly, to which the great demon only chuckled.

"_Happy?_" It snorted. "_Hardly. Shukaku is weak, he is the smallest part. I am not concerned over his petty Jinchuuriki._"

Naruto frowned, he felt the whisper-soft brush of Yugao's silky hair against his shoulder as she stood, rigid, next to him. The two were situated on one of the higher branches which towered above the rest, etching into the skyline, the perfect bird's eye view of the scene underneath. Below them, Rain nin were massacred by winds of sand.

"Then what are you so interested in?"

"_Remember this day closely, boy. This is possibly the most crucial juncture of you time, shaping what will become the history of your pathetic mortal world_."

Naruto blinked, stratosphere eyes sightlessly watching the brutal murder below him. Bewilderment flooded his face as confusion reeled inside him, festering at the bottom of his stomach as the wet feeling of dread slid down his back.

"What...do you mean by that?"

"_Hmm_?" Kyuubi purred. "_Wouldn't you like to know._"

The good mood from the past couple days was immediately spoiled by the demon's vague words of prophecy and terror. He had figured that—from the way his companions spoke in anguish of babysitting Gennin—the mission would be boring as hell and annoying, but he had a wondrous time with his female commander, and even Towa and Koga, without the weight and worry of the usual ANBU missions. He was sure the others were enjoying the days off, too. Towa had even commented it was a bit like paid vacation, especially when he eyed the house Yamato had built.

But now, he looked below him in tense worry, all humor flushed from his system.

Kyuubi inside him was a painful reminder that the status he had now was nothing but a dream.

He could have been down there, fighting for his life with mediocre skills normal for his age, bickering with Sasuke as Sakura yelled at him to stop fighting with the Uchiha, barely passing the written test and probably not fairing well on the second exam either. Sasuke would still be better then him, still a step above him. His Taijustu would still be so helpless that a floundering fish would have looked more elegant, Sakura would still turn her nose at him every time she saw him, and he'd still be the deadlast who struggled for everything.

Instead, he stood looking down at them, from his spot above with the elite of Konoha, marked himself as one of the toughest in the nation.

All because of the fucking fox.

The blonde clenched his hands, head jerking to the side as he stared past the wavering, shadowed darkness of the trees in anger. Kyuubi...he wondered how much the demon knew. It had become increasingly obvious to him that the demon certainly wasn't telling him as much as he should. Waking up in his body to unfamiliar places was only the start of it. Kyuubi was in the middle of something, something _big _and completely over his head.

"Naruto?" Yugao called softly, the blonde jolting upright at his name and turning his head quickly to face her. Her hair was straight and soft, Prussian in coloring and tickling the ANBU tattoo on his shoulder. Her ANBU uniform fit her immaculately, long legs accented by the shinobi shorts she had on, lined with belts and belts of kunai and shuriken pouches.

"Sorry." He muttered, thanking the good graces of his Shinobi mask for hiding his flush of embarrassment when he realized he was checking her out. "What were you saying?"

She shook her head at him, and not the kind of nasty fury she usually saved for Towa and Koga but one of mirth and amusement. "I was saying that Konoha should watch for that redhead."

"Gaara, you mean?" Naruto studied the team traveling some ways below them, nothing but specks against the verdant, mossy ground.

She nodded. "Is that his name? The Kazekage's son?"

"I think that's his name." Naruto paused with a frown, wondering how he had come to that knowledge. There was a significant gap in his memory between the hours of one in the morning till dawn, and he wondered abruptly if Kyuubi had received the information, and subconsciously, he had picked up some of it.

His eyes traveled to where the once glorious work of the Fourth Hokage had resided on his stomach. Without the seal to define him, where did Kyuubi start and Naruto end? Why did he feel as if that gap was become smaller and smaller?

Abruptly, his head snapped to the West. The scent of fresh blood was upwind, the breeze coursing through his hair carrying the forest's scent of damp moss and musky trees, as well as the sharp irony smell of blood, making his nose scrunch in a macabre twist of disgust and pleasure. Yugao hadn't seemed to notice, watching the scene before her in repulsion, as she thought of how young the boy below her must be, and how warped he was. Of course, Naruto was also a Jinchuuriki, but the blonde....even Naruto seemed more stable than the boy below her.

Gaara easily whipped his enemies into shreds of flayed flesh and blood, his teammates sharing her shock, although it was much more evident on their faces.

The redhead stirred amidst his shifting sand, head suddenly snapping up to a branch nearly a half mile above him. His sea green eyes narrowed as he studied the empty branch. Mother had been growling about something above there, yet he saw nothing.

"_Nothing is there," _He placated the demon to no avail, as it continued to whimper.

Yugao cursed silently from her new position behind the sand team. She should have counted on the host's demon to have far greater senses then his slower human. No Gennin could have spotted her so easily, however, Kyuubi never seemed to have a problem with it.

"We should move out, Naruto." She said quietly, brushing her hair behind her ear. "Regroup with Towa and Koga before the sun sets—

She turned around when she didn't hear the other boy, seeing the empty trees behind her. She had figured the boy had followed her when she had moved.

"Naruto?" She called to the darkness, puzzled.

The saffron-haired boy in question was currently tearing down the forestry at an alarming rate, pushing off the branches with such force it near splintered the wood, long jagged lines slashing the surface of the bark like fissures on the surface.

He _knew _this blood. He'd shed enough of it to recall its strangely unique scent. The ability to tell one humans blood from another obviously came from Kyuubi, but the ability felt wholly a part of him as he thanked it graciously, racing off into the canopy of dark leaves in search of its owner. Sasuke, a bastard he may be, but a friend nonetheless. It had taken Yugao's kind coaxing—much to his embarrassment— for him to finally be able to admit this aloud. But it was true.

The last thing he'd ever want was for the Uchiha to end up injured, or worse, dead.

The blood was getting closer, no longer a faint trail dwindling between the honey-scented flowers and mossy undertones of the forest, but so thick that even a human could be able to smell its vile stench. His pace quickened, as his heart thrummed in his chest, pounding against his rib cage, seemingly shattering against his lungs and veins and spreading its poisonous glass shards through his blood, cutting him even to his numbing fingertips—

"Kyuubi!"

Yugao had belatedly remembered to use his codename. A hand immediately pulled him backwards, and his eyes widened when he noticed Yugao's mask some inches away from his own.

"Sempai—

"What do you think you're doing?!" She hissed with more then a bit of anger. "Trying to get yourself killed? Or spotted?"

"N—No!" He gasped quickly. "I was just—" Fervently, his head swished to the direction of Sasuke's blood. "My team, they're—"

"I'm aware." Yugao sighed, letting go of her tight grip on his shoulder. "I don't need demonic senses to smell it from here."

Naruto wavered as he stood, body twisted to watch the lines of Yugao's mask. They were hundreds of feet off the ground, the tree branch spanning near five meters wide, the drop dizzying beneath them, and the dark canopy still some ways above to dapple the sunlight. He could make out the worry in one of Yugao's dark eyes, the light flickering onto the holes in her mask long enough for their chestnut coloring to be seen. She was worried, and he was sure, she'd immediately report this to the captain the moment she saw him.

"I have to find them." The blond insisted, tugging himself away from the loose grip she had on his upper arm.

"Don't." She frowned at him. "They're in the middle of an exam, Naruto. To aid them would immediately disqualify all three. Do you want that?"

"No..."Even though he was marginally subdued by her logical words, he struggled regardless. "But Yugao, they're—"

"They knew what they signed up for when they took this test." Yugao tried to placate him, but the blonde only shook his head relentlessly.

Yugao couldn't understand. As a normal shinobi—and not a Jinchuuriki—she could probably never understand the sixth sense he'd carried with him. Some might consider it an uncanny luck, but his intuition had always been spot on. And he was almost certain that Sasuke was in danger, Kyuubi's words early only proving it. The demon couldn't possibly be omniscient, but he held no thought in his mind that the demon king was telling him the full truth. He _knew _something was going to happen today, something that could change the course of the world, And Naruto was positive that whatever it may be, it had to do with Sasuke.

His eyes, focused somewhere between the tense lines of branches down below, became focused with such clarity his heart had stopped its racing to slow to a confident pace.

Naruto turned to his companion, who watched him closely.

"I'm sorry, Yugao-chan." He said, and she seemed taken aback at his familiarity with her. He'd only ever called one girl 'chan', and that was Sakura. Even then, he didn't anymore. "But I have to do this."

Startled, the ANBU had one hand unsheathing her wakizashi. "Do what, Naruto?" Her voice was deceptively calm, edged with deep set panic.

He unclasped his mask and threw it at her face, causing the woman's immediate reflex to come in. She caught it inches away from her own, fox marks staring down at her, and the canopy behind it could be seen from the cut out eye holes. With surprise, she pulled it out of her face to see her young comrade darting into the trees below, nothing but a blur.

"_Naruto!!"_

She cried aloud, surely loud enough for more then a couple people to hear her.

–

–

Sakura held her breath, eyes widening, a glossy, restless movements in their grave sockets. It happened so fast, so utterly surprising that it was slow enough for her eyes to remember every movement in clear detail, as if she was the Uchiha of her team.

Sasuke had unlocked his two tomoe Sharingan, and she had cheered. Sai had stayed quiet during the whole affair, watching her teammate closely.

He was unnerving, to say the least. He always watched Sasuke out of the corner of his eyes, and Sakura was beginning to wonder if he was a love rival. Of course, the way he watched the Uchiha was nothing short of creepy, while hers was in loving motivation. Sasuke didn't seem too pleased with both, and if the Uchiha was used to being truthful with himself, he'd admit to wishing a bit that Naruto was back on their team. At least that way, he was one hundred percent sure his other teammate wasn't also trying to hit on him. Because with Sai, it was hard to tell. His smiles seemed fake, and his words, even more papery.

Even dumb Sakura had noticed by their second day, as Sai had seemed to glue himself onto Sasuke's hip, much to the pink-haired girls ire.

A couple times, she thought she had heard Naruto's voice in the forest, and she had shook her head to clear herself of such strange thoughts. Perhaps it was the small part of her that missed the blonde. She'd be lying if she said she didn't. Sai was creepy. And possibly a love rival. She'd rather have an annoying loud mouth in love with _her _then a stalker like Sai who liked Sasuke.

And maybe even on some level, Sakura was aware that his feelings as well went beyond unnatural. It wasn't affection that kept his eyes unwavering from Sasuke's, but it was that look in his eyes when he saw the boy's Sharingan. Captivated, almost. But certainly not surprised, like he should have been. He was surely around their age, and hadn't been quite old enough to see a Sharingan before the clan was wiped off. Yet he seemed used to the gentle swirl of the tomoe amidst their world of red, as if he had seen it clearly in his life time, long enough to study its slow swim.

Of course, Sai was the least of her problems now.

They had run into trouble.

In actuality, they had run into a lot of the trouble. A couple plants trying to eat them, a couple teams trying to get them. Nothing a good breath of fire or a Sasuke-ass kicking couldn't handle. But the grass woman had been different. If, in fact, it was a woman at all.

The Kusa-nin had taken one side glance at Sai, before her eyes had narrowed and she had immediately darted towards him, taking him out almost immediately while she and Sasuke fruitlessly tried to help, only to be held off by Kage Bunshin—_which was a Konoha technique_, which made her even more worried. By then, Sai had already been incapacitated, limp on the forest floor.

Even if she didn't like the creep, it was horrifying to see him looking so lifeless, leg bent at an awkward angle and ink-animal scrolls sprawled around him, not even used yet.

"Useless little ROOT." The woman licked her bloodied fingers greedily, Sakura recalled her saying this with clarity, even if it was more focused on the grotesque image of an unattractive woman slurping blood then the words she was saying.

But her eyes turned towards Sasuke, who had then stood frozen, sword carelessly swinging in her arms.

Sakura could tell already, she was no Gennin.

"I wonder what he was doing so close to you?" The woman mused aloud, some bemusement in her voice.

She seemed to have teleported herself in front of Sasuke—her quickness was amazing—and Sakura couldn't even throw a kunai to attack her before she already stepped in front of the Uchiha, bloody hands roving over his pale, porcelain colored cheeks. But her eyes never left his Sharingan, watching it with obsession, even as he recoiled away from her near talon-like fingers, trying to pry away from her as she held his jaw with her grip. Sakura was screaming by then _Don't you dare touch Sasuke-kun like that!! _even though her confidence was nothing but useless imagery, weapons shaking in her hands with such tremors that she couldn't possibly throw them with accuracy.

"No doubt that pretty little Sharingan of yours," If possible, the woman had bent closer, until her sickly yellow eyes were mere inches away from the Uchiha clan's legacy. "I'm sure Danzou would love to add this to his collection."

However, neither of the two were paying much attention to what she was saying, more interested in the sword she drew behind her back.

"Sasuke!!" Sakura shouted. "She has a sword! Behind her!"

The Gennin took an immediate step forward, ready to help her teammate who's eyes were now focused on the bloodied blade with terror, but the woman had disappeared. Sakura whipped her head around, only to be backhanded into the ground, shrieking in pain as she crumpled to the floor. Her eyes opened hazily to the swimming vision of a rather ugly looking woman, almost man-like in face structure, narrowing her eyes down at her.

"Pathetic..." The woman hissed, kicking the idiotic little Gennin for good measure before turning back towards her precious Uchiha.

Even now, the boy was hardly a fight. Not that Orochimaru cared very much, it hardly mattered if Sasuke was of any use at the moment. In fact, the weaker, the better, Those of weak mind and body were easier to possess then those of strong will and health. He played around a bit with the boy, surely as his Kage Bunshin was doing to Anko some miles away. The woman was much too mulish for her own good, probably rushing headlong into a battle she was certainly not going to win, most likely preparing for an all out fight. Of course, even if she managed to somehow dispel his Bunshin, she'd never make it in time. And now that he'd caught her she couldn't call for help—not like there was any, he'd already killed off the team of ANBU that were wandering around the forest. Trust Sarutobi to only assign a single ANBU team. The man was too trusting of the Gennin in this exam...and more importantly, of those who could pose as weak little Gennin.

The snake Sannin tossed off the prodigy's futile attempts to swipe at him, sending him tousling into the dirt as the boy tried to save his female teammate.

The dark haired genius struggled to get up, as the Sannin watched him carefully. His Sharingan was beautiful, the utmost perfection of the Uchiha clan. No matter that he hadn't been strong enough to possess Itachi's, his brother's would do just fine. In fact, it was better this way—the weaker they were, the easier it would be to take them away. He hardly wanted another bout with the Mangekyou, waking up with his limbs rendered useless.

He heard a rustling behind him, and he hissed with no small annoyance.

Sasuke's teammate was pitiful, but she always seemed to manage to struggle to her feet, only to be knocked down just as easily by him once more.

This time, however, the teammate in question was not the pink haired girl.

"Orochimaru, aren't you?" The boy growled lowly, pressing his Wakizashi to his throat. "The Sannin."

"So you noticed?" He licked his teeth. A challenge. How exciting.

"I could smell snakes from miles away." The sword cut skin. "This body...it smells of rotting flesh. It's dead, isn't it?"

The Otogakure leader nimbly moved out of the way of the blonde's sword, darting out of the way to face the boy properly. He was surprised at what he saw. The boy couldn't be much older than Sasuke, but he was wearing high class armor, just like the black ops, and even had their trademark sword. However, it wasn't his body armor that gave him away, but his stern-set face, big, bright stratosphere eyes and sunny lemon peel colored hair. All given to him by the Fourth Hokage.

"Uzumaki Naruto..." He purred slowly, behind him, the young Uchiha stifled a gasp.

* * *

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y

- - - - - - - -

_My favorite line in the whole entire Naruto series;_

_"Scared, chicken?"_

_Definitely going to be in the next chapter. _

_Thoughts? _


	7. A Mad Tea Party

_I'd say sorry for the delay--but there was none! I got really bored at the Caps game...because my parents dropped me off like three hours early. So I was just sitting around in the box and realized they had internet, and well, fast updation? _

_YIKES! Synchronicity it shall stay then... I never thought people got so fervent about title names O.O'  
_

_

* * *

_

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**ci**__t_**y**

-

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**snakes **_and bones in the back of your **room**,_

_-_

**c**_h_**a**_r_**m **_the _wolves_ with the e_**y**_es of a _**GAMBLER**

_-  
_

"N—Naruto?" Sakura whispered as she forced herself up from a crumpled heap on the ground.

The boy paid her no mind, and Sakura's thoughts raced when she noticed his appearance. He was wearing high-class armor, and a grave stony face she'd never seen her loud, boisterous teammate take on before. He hardly looked like the Naruto she remembered in her memories…with fat cheeks and small squinted eyes, like a bright swath of paint amidst the dark undertones of Sasuke in front of the backdrop of the red bridge.

The Naruto before her had wide blue eyes open, furious in their sky-like color. He looked, confident. Not arrogant, but a quite sort of knowingness to him that didn't require loud proclamations of awesomeness and ability.

Orochimaru studied the boy, giving him a quick, appeased once over. "I wasn't aware of this new development.."

The blonde studied the Sannin closely. At the moment, he would hardly be able to do much against the snake, as much as he'd like to. Yugao was right, it was a dumb decision to barge head-on, and he hadn't thought that it would be the legendary warrior that he'd stumble upon when rescuing Team Seven. But he would be damned if he let the guy walk over him to his team.

He took a step around the snake, in the familiarity of watching Tenzou do it a handful of times when engaged in a one on one with the enemy.

"I highly doubt a Jounin, _missing-nin _of Konoha, is supposed to be in the Chuunin Examinations, much less in Konohagakure in general."

"Such excellent deduction skills—

"Why are you here?" He asked bluntly, altogether aware of the fact he probably wouldn't receive a straightforward answer.

As expected, the Snake Sannin did nothing but lick his hands, watching delightfully at the lean torso, a body of wiry muscles tense and ready-spring. Such honed perfection…nothing like the Uchiha in front of him.

Naruto pulled his katana off of the strap on his back, starting with a cut to the mid-torso that seemed almost second nature to him, even though he hadn't ever used a katana before. The two parried each other, until Orochimaru was able to flip the blade out of the blonde's hand, embedding it onto a tree branch some ways up.

"Shit." The blonde cursed to himself. The blade was far up, he wouldn't have time to get it.

The snake Sannin came at him faster then he thought he would, and caught the blond by surprise as the two barreled into a match of taijutsu, the two sprang apart, on opposite tree branches.

Orochimaru landed on Sasuke's swiveling his head to fix his interest on the young Uchiha.

"_This is bad…" _The Uchiha thought, as he looked at his teammate and one ex-teammate. Sai was on the floor, unmoving, Sakura was hardly in any shape herself, and he was getting weaker by the moment. Regardless of what Naruto had learned in the past few weeks he hadn't seen him, he doubted the boy could be a match to the monster in front of them.

"Take the scroll." He began aloud, deactivating his Sharingan. "Please…take it and leave us."

Sakura's breath hitched audibly.

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Sasuke, what the hell are you talking about?!" He yelled to the boy, some feet below him opposite of Orochimaru. "Why would you give the scroll to the enemy?!" They'd worked hard for it, the exams weren't easy for a team who hadn't had the chemistry of working for years together like some of the others did. Certainly not with brooding Sasuke, love struck Sakura, and the impassive Sai. Scrolls were impossible to find this late in the exams. To forfeit the exams like this…

"I see…" Orochimaru stood on his branch. "Very smart of you, Sasuke-kun. The only way for prey to escape a predator, is to give the predator a different meal."

"Take it!!" Sasuke threw the scroll at the man woman some feet away from him, much to Naruto's surprise.

Didn't Sasuke get it? He'd worked around the high profile criminals long enough to know the game Orochimaru was playing. The Sannin hardly cared about the scroll, he wouldn't have been so keen on Sasuke if he did. He was after something else, and he'd probably kill the whole team and simply take the scroll from their dead bodies, Naruto could easily surmise from his sick attitude. He was the worst, killing for pleasure.

And Naruto couldn't let Sasuke waste his future, no matter how much he tried to dislike the asshole.

He dived into the path of the scroll.

"You bastard!" The Uchiha hissed. "What are you doing?"

When the blonde said nothing, he continued on. "Do you understand the situation?!"

"Of course I understand." The blond scowled. Maybe some time ago, he'd have hit the Uchiha for being so thickheaded, but his time in ANBU had made him grow. Punching the Uchiha wouldn't solve anything. "Don't let him get in your head, Sasuke!" He shouted to the boy. "What guarantee is there that he'll let you leave if you give him the scroll?"

The Uchiha looked successfully cowed by his words, as if admitting that perhaps he hadn't thought of that. And maybe some time ago, he'd have argued the point right back at the blonde stubbornly. But times had changed, and the two of them had grown.

"Hehehe…" The snake-woman…man chuckled. "Naruto-kun you're correct!" Her face was twisted as she licked the side of her cheek with her large, unnatural tongue.

She pulled her sleeve up to reveal a strange pattern on her wrist, licking her lips once more before sticking her thumb and biting it to make it bleed. "Since I can…" She pushed her bloodied thumb over the seal. "Simply kill you and take it!"

Naruto's eyes widened as the man made a seal he'd seen before.

The blonde charged as fast as he could to the Sannin, as Sasuke stood to his feet. "No Naruto! Run!"

His Wakizashi was in his hands immediately for the killing strike, but he wasn't fast enough.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu…"

A sea of clouds erupted with the intonation, and the Sannin was suddenly standing atop a massive snakehead. Mid jump, Naruto could do nothing but twist in hopes to salvage his vital organs as the snake hit him full on, sending him barreling into a tree.

"Naruto!!" Sakura and Sasuke cried aloud, as their once teammate splintered a massive branch with the force of his fall.

Sasuke paled as he saw the blonde's unmoving form some meters below, a small splotch in his vision as the towering snake's head moved into his line of sight and he couldn't make out the blonde's bloodied form.

"Go ahead and eat," Orochimaru smiled sickly to his snake, which took the opportunity to rear its ugly head in the direction of its prey.

"EAT SHIT!"

The blonde sprang up, nailing the snake in the flat nose as he drew his kunai down the length of its face blood spattering everywhere as the snake hissed and spat in pain.

The ANBU flipped over to catch the Sannin's eye, claret red pupils knifed through the middle with his pupil.

"_This kid…now way…"_

The snake came hurtling down into the brambles as it shook off its injury, sending flying leaves spraying across Sakura's line of vision. _Naruto has snapped_… She thought hazily, surveying the intense damage to the snake's face. _But why is Naruto so strong?!_

The blonde's body curved away from the Sannin, and the snake man spit out a torrent of smoke to turn the boy's body in his direction. There. A clearer view of the russet red worlds residing where they hadn't before—the eyes of a demon.

_Those eyes…there's no mistaking it…_

"_This is Naruto!?" _Sasuke drew a harsh intake of breath as his eyes widened. When had he become so strong? When had the blond become out of his league?

"Sasuke-kun," He turned to the dark-haired Gennin, the snake rearing its bloody—but mostly unscathed—head to turn to the boy. "It's your turn now… What will you show me?"

Sasuke, startled, crouched into a defensive position as, if possible, his eyes grew even more surprised.

The snake was _towering, _impossibly so. Its face surely must have spanned the large branch Sasuke was standing upon, eyes larger then his whole length and body so tall that he couldn't see the bottom past the shadowed ground. As it loomed in front of him, ready to strike, his mind raced as to how he could possibly defeat such a monstrous creature.

His mouth opened, Sakura screamed so loud his ears were ringing, and Orochimaru's face looked impossibly delighted.

Sasuke closed his eyes—there wasn't anything he could do.

But silence, so loud that only Sakura's scream rang through it, met his ears. Nothing but an intense, deep silence. And the barest of cracking wood beneath his feet, as the tree groaned with fervor as pressure collided with it.

"…" He made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, but nothing else could make it past his closing throat.

The blond, his dobe, the academy drop out who's uselessness was only rivaled by Sakura, with a penchant for saying dumb things and couldn't even make a fucking _Bunshin_, the one who he had believed dropped out of their team because of _him _and his pompous attitude, the one he felt guilty for ever doubting, for antagonizing—

Silence, silence, silence, and cracked armor just above an _ANBU_ seal—Naruto was ANBU?!— and wide visionary eyes, inconceivable strength and inconceivable will.

This was not Uzumaki Naruto anymore.

Red red eyes, claret red like a world drenched in poison, like the backdrop of a Sharingan's slow swim, _(The Tsukiyomi behind those irises) _blood as he (what's with that face, moron?) slowly fell into a shallow ocean of blood (my body just moved on it's own….idiot) Naruto's eyes as he looked at him now, a wrathful demigod behind them that could scream and wrench the jaws of the sky open and now, now—

"Are you scared,"

They looked at him.

"Chicken?"

Their eyes met.

Sharingan to demon, red to red (infinity to infinity) and _something _was there, bubbling just beneath the surface, a world unknown, a world full of demons and sharp teeth and ravens taking to the sky, where the moon was full and _something, it was saying something to him—_the man with the Sharingan, and the demon with ten tomoe.

But the dream was pulled away from him, just as Naruto was pulled away by an exonerated tongue until he faced the Konoha missing-nin.

"Heh, so the nine-tails brat is still alive…"

Naruto's eyes widened.

Inside of him, a beast rumbled beneath his skin, between thick dark lashes and the smallest spray of sun freckles, where blood rushed through veins.

"_GAKI, MOVE!"_

The blond immediately used a kunai to swipe at the man, sending him off balance long enough for the Jinchuuriki to slice the man's tongue and wrestle out of his grip, toppling back onto another branch.

"_He's strong,"_ Naruto admitted quietly to the fox inside him.

"_Strong?"_ The demon laughed abruptly_. "No, not strong, not in the least. This man is nothing but a weak, pathetic fool, searching relentlessly for that which he cannot have."_

Naruto soaked in the demon's mocking words with curiosity, as he circled the Sannin, who only flicked his narrowed, gleeful eyes in Naruto's direction, wiping his bloody tongue.

"_What do you mean?"_

"_See his eyes, mortal? They are angered, they are hunting. He is searching for something that he cannot have, yet he does so anyway. This is a weak, mortal trait that all humans suffer from. Learn to combat it, and never strive into the darkness like this one has."_

Naruto frowned, not yet ready to engage the man in a fight, trying to decipher his body language the way Kyuubi was able to so easily. The snake man was tired, not overly so, and could certainly put up a fight. The fatigue was more likely due to the flesh he covered himself in rather then chakra exhaustion.

"_I understand."_ The blond gulped thickly, as he thought of strength. His mind relayed to him hazy images of a man on a cliff, hair wild and upright and eyes blazing.

"_Good. Now,"_

The demon pounced into the forefront of Naruto's mind, easing the transition effortlessly, the only notable change was a smoother, more confident gait to Naruto's walk, as the demon flicked his eyes at the snake man.

Orochimaru eyed the change in the boy. "What's this now? Confident, are we?"

Kyuubi made the first strike, to which Orochimaru parried with Kusanagi. The demon immediately began a sword dance worthy of the elite of shinobi, Orochimaru cautiously defending. The boy was good, entirely _too _good. Orochimaru had first thought he wouldn't be much of a challenge, and had came down to buy time.

But as their blades clashed in a dance of steel, met, and sprang apart once more, he became aware that the match not be entirely in his favor.

The Sannin cursed silently, as his eyes moved toward Sasuke.

He still had his chance.

Kyuubi spotted an opening in the man's defense, calling upon a burst of fire to burn the man to a crisp. The ground was incinerated as a wall of fire erupted from the demon's hand, scorching the trees and yellowing the grass. However, in the man's place was only a burning log.

"A—Arghh.."

The demon turned around abruptly, as Naruto's conscious wavered slightly inside him.

Orochimaru's body stood uselessly some paces away from the Kawarimi as his neck grew to impossible lengths, face at the juncture of Sasuke's head and shoulder.

"What the fuck are you doing to Sasuke?!" The blonde shouted, unknowingly speaking while Kyuubi still had full control of his body, a feat that would have scared him if he had the knowledge of what he had done—another step in the formation of the two of them as one being.

"My name is Orochimaru…" He began as he let go of the pale neck he had bit, the Uchiha's eyes fluttering closed as he collapsed onto the ground. "If you ever want to see me again…then survive and pass this exam…"

Sakura choked as she watched Sasuke's body fall onto its knees, before falling into the dirt.

"Orochimaru!!"

A woman cut through the trees, barreling straight at the Sannin.

Her blade, however, met nothing but a useless log, as the Sannin used a Kawarimi to escape Konoha ANBU.

Sakura struggled to her feet as a crowd of ANBU dropped elegantly from the trees, emotionless as their blank masks and rigid posture, except for one. The woman who had leapt at the Sannin was heaving loudly as she hunched over the log, kicking it in anger. Sakura was struck by her perfect violet hair and thin, sculpted body, looking infinitely lethal with swords strapped to her back and an ANBU tattoo on her right shoulder.

_This _was a kunoichi, beautiful, elusive, and deadly.

"Naruto." The woman approached her teammate, holding a fox mask in her hand.

The blonde took it wordlessly, mouth open but nothing to say. His eyes watched Sasuke's prone form unwaveringly, turned back to a sky-water blue. The ANBU team immediately revived Sai, who began to cough and sputter to life once more.

"I'm sorry about that, Yugao…" The blond seemed to find his words in a hoarse whisper, eyes never leaving Sasuke. "But I—

"You did good, Naruto." Said the black ops. "That man was a wanted S-class Criminal, you were only doing your job," And, as she looked back at Sakura and the broken Team Seven. "And protecting your friends."

"Some ANBU I am." The blonde spat furiously. "Can't even protect my friends…."

"You did what you could." The purple-haired woman sighed, tone soothing.

"Towa!" She barked aloud, turning to face two of the ANBU who had came from the trees with her. "Locate Mitarashi Anko, and get her to the hospital immediately."

"Hai."

"Koga!" She motioned to the remaining ANBU. "Escort these Gennin to the Tower, and explain the circumstances to the proctor. Make sure they are allowed entry, and that the two of them receive medical attention." She motioned to the hardly alive ROOT member, and unconscious Uchiha. "And find Hatake Kakashi, and tell him to take a look at this seal."

"Hai." The ANBU bowed, before picking up Sasuke in one fell swoop, and motioning for the two to follow him.

Sakura did so hesitantly, feet shaking as she made cautious steps to the beckoning ANBU.

Her eyes met Naruto's from behind his fox mask, suddenly aware of how _little _this looked like Naruto, with the lack of expression on the porcelain mask and the dark clothing.

"Naruto…I—

She struggled, not knowing what to say to her teammate, whom she now realized to be a black ops. How long had he hid this from them? How long had he pretended to be the lackadaisical dead last with no skill?

"I'll see you soon, Sakura." The blond told her softly, and she could feel Naruto in that soothing, promising voice.

Her eyes travelled to his arm, where blood gushed from between his arm protector and tight, black shoulder-less turtleneck. "But, your injuries…"

"I'll be fine." He brushed her off, pointing to Koga. "You should hurry up."

Subdued, she nodded, before jogging to catch up to her panting teammate and the ANBU carrying Sasuke.

Naruto watched her disappear behind the bend of a tree, overlapped in dark shadows until he couldn't even make out her pink hair, unsure of what he felt. Seeing Sakura and Sasuke after all this time…was liking opening unhealed wounds too soon. He didn't know what to say to them, how to explain.

Yugao must have noticed his quieted posture, placing a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, before Yamato dropped from the trees and she let her hand drop.

"Report." He looked between the two of them sternly.

Naruto watched the tiger-striped mask apprehensively.

"This was all my fault, Taichou." He broke out suddenly, causing Yugao to turn on him.

"Naruto—

"It's true." He interrupted his teammate. "Yugao tried to stop me…but I threw my mask at her as a diversion before taking off to help my former teammates." And, defeated, he added. "Which is against both the rules of the Chuunin Examination and ANBU regulations to help out Gennin taking the exam and to disobey orders from the team captain."

Yamato took all of this in with a slow nod, before turning to Yugao. "Cat?"

"It's as he said…" She began warily. "But altogether, his foresight was correct. I had only apprehended him for going after the Gennin team because I thought it was an overreaction, I hadn't thought they were genuinely facing something against the rules of the exam."

"And what, exactly, was against the rules of the exam?" And then, with a look at Naruto. "Kyuubi?"

"Orochimaru was successful in placing an unknown seal on Uchiha Sasuke's neck." The blonde began furiously. "And was able to escape before the ANBU could detain him."

"This doesn't sound good…" The ANBU captain sighed. "Do either of you have any idea where he may have hid?"

Naruto shrugged. "No…But I know that his body smelt of decaying flesh…like he was hiding in someone else's skin."

Yugao made a sound that sounded remotely like, "That's sick" as she turned her head to the floor in disgust.

"He's disguised, then?"

"As a woman from grass."

Their captain smiled thinly. "Correct. Towa, Koga and I were able to deduce this with Mitarashi Anko when we discovered their faceless bodies." He held out a scroll, and tossed it to Naruto, who caught it deftly. "Now, You'll come with me and we'll explain this to the Hokage. And Cat, scan the perimeter. If you find anything, be sure to contact me via the ANBU frequency immediately."

"Understood." She bowed, before taking off into the trees.

Yamato turned to Naruto. "Shall we?"

--

Sakura was panting heavily as they reached the towers. Their black ops escort—Koga, if she remembered correctly—gave a signal to one of the guards at the top of the tower, and they immediately sprang from their location to inquire their comrade. The ANBU motioned to his charges and explained that they had been attacked by an infiltrated S-Class criminal and under orders of Captain Yamato of Team Shiroi the Gennin were permitted to pass the Second Round without the requirements. At the mention of one 'Captain Yamato' the Chuunin guards were immediately cowed, and allowed them entrance.

Sakura gulped, as Sasuke let out another groan of pain.

He'd gone _mental_ some minutes ago, screaming about the pain and suddenly regaining his strength enough to wrestle out of the ANBU's grasp, the curse seal spreading over his shoulders and face at a rapid rate. The ANBU had immediately incarcerated him, and he was now in a near comatose state, wavering between consciousnesses with small groans.

She gathered her courage, and quickened her pace until she was side by side with the towering ANBU member.

"Why is Naruto on your team?" She asked bluntly, as they walked through deserted hallways.

"Who?" The ANBU replied, voice muffled with his mask.

A bit frustrated and altogether frightened, Sakura tried again. "Naruto. The blonde boy."

"What about him?"

"Why's he on your team?" She stopped herself abruptly, and, in a softer voice. "Why's he a black ops?

"I don't think that's really any of your concern." The tall man began placidly.

Sakura immediately erupted with her first, knee-jerk defensive reaction. "It is! Because he's my teammate—

"Not anymore."

It was the cold, clean truth, and Koga was hardly one for tact. Sakura stopped her brisk pace, and stood motionless, eyes wide and glossy, as she stared past the continuously walking ANBU to the far wall. He was right. Kakashi had explained it to them, Naruto was under direct orders from the Hokage now. What kind of orders, their elusive Sensei hadn't said, but he _had _said it was out of his jurisdiction and there was nothing he could do about Naruto's absence except find a replacement.

Sakura's first reaction was annoyance. Why did Naruto get special treatment? He was dumb and stupid, loud and obnoxious. What had he ever done? The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Naruto was a little more then that. But certainly not…ANBU worthy.

"Sakura-san?" Said paused in following their escort, turning to the stalk-still girl.

She shook her head, trying to clear her musings. "Sorry."

Sakura hastened her walk to catch up to her only conscious teammate.

Sasuke was immediately given to Kakashi upon awakening, and the Hokage had been talking about something like 'curse seals' and 'experiments' and their practitioner came in at one point and they discussed even more. Sakura and Sai stood outside the door, listening in as she shifted her wait uneasily back and forth.

Their sickly examinator, Hayate, informed them of the rules and how the prelims would work while Sakura didn't listen to a word he said, too engrossed in worrying about Sasuke and Naruto.

One of which seemed clearly able to defend himself, the other, almost unstable as he clutched his seal next to her.

Kakashi obviously had been informed of Sasuke's seal, as he warned his student that, if it awoke at any part of the preliminaries, he'd personally pull Sasuke out, and that he shouldn't over do it.

This was an ill-fated warning, as almost immediately was Sasuke's name called and the boy was sent down to face another of the Gennin, one Akado Yoroi.

The burn from before, when they stood in line with the other Gennin to hear the rules, still stood. She'd tried to get him to back out, like Kabuto had done, but he would hear none of it. He even threatened her…sort of…

Sakura was sure she saw Naruto slip in some halfway through the match, a blurry form in the corner of her peripheral vision, standing close to the Hokage. She turned her head immediately to see the blonde mop on the short ANBU, and recognized the woman next to him to be the kunoichi from before, as well as a taller, brunette whom she didn't know. Soon after, two men dropped from the shadowy tops of the examination room. One, she remembered as their bulky escort, and the other was wiry and tall with a bird mask.

Naruto bit his lip silently as he stood with his team in front of his Hokage.

"He's doing…" The Hokage sighed. "I'm not too sure, to be frank. I was able to help Anko's with hers. But is different from Anko's, it's a newer, more untamed version. I'm unsure of what its uses are, even."

"This is troubling." Yamato remarked, eyes moving to the fighting Gennin.

Sasuke and his opponent were staged at the center of the room.

Naruto sighed as he heard the worrisome news. Sasuke…if only he hadn't been distracted. If only he had thought faster, acted faster…maybe the boy wouldn't be in the predicament he was now.

"_What's going to happen?"_ Naruto asked his tenant quietly, to which the demon only snorted.

"_Did I claim to be omniscient?"_ The Kyuubi mocked.

"_No."_ Naruto protested hotly. _"But I know you have a keen insight. What do you_ think _will happen?"_

"_Only what is meant to." _The demon said distantly, not really answering anything.

The blonde didn't like the elusive quality to the great demigod's words, but remarked nothing of it. If Kyuubi didn't say anything, he probably never would, regardless of how much whining Naruto did.

The Hokage spoke to the rest of his team, while Naruto had his face jerked to the side in anger, clenching his jaw. There was something—no, a lot of things—that Kyuubi wasn't telling him. Important, almost life-defining events that the demon was keenly aware of, but wouldn't share. And, if Naruto's insight was correct, then he was most certainly an unknowing key player in these events.

"_You're right to some extent."_ The demon admitted finally.

"_Well when are you going to tell me anything about it?!"_ He shouted back, in exasperation.

But he had no answer to that.

Naruto cursed quietly, and continued to watch the rest of the exams from his spot with his black ops team.

Towa, while a rather oblivious and altogether dense person by definition, had even recognized his grief.

He watched the boy out of the corner of his eye, before sighing. Naruto was easy to read, even with his mask tightly covering his face. He was worried for his team—worried for Sasuke, and the boy's crazed obsession with power, rekindled and doubling in size and fervor with the awakening of his curse seal—worried for Sakura, who looked ready to keel over.

"They'll be fine, you know." He said aloud, and Naruto tensed at his words. "They're strong kids. They'll make it."

Naruto exhaled loudly through his mouth slit. "I don't know about that…" He gulped. "You're right, they are strong. But, there are stronger people out there. I'm worried about them, more then anything."

"Like Orochimaru?"

Naruto nodded. "And what he did to Sasuke."

"The boy's got a high tolerance for pain, I'll tell you that much." Yugao surmised, as she watched the dark haired Gennin fight against the chakra-sapping opponent.

Yamato tensed. "There—

On Sasuke's neck. The curse seal had begun to inch upwards.

"Hokage-sama," Yugao turned to her leader immediately. "Should we detain him?"

The old man brushed off her concerns. "It hasn't taken over him yet." He remarked. "I'd like to see this play out."

The ANBU kunoichi only tensed, and turned back to her team, watching closely. "Hai, Hokage-sama."

Naruto watched as Sasuke abruptly kicked the other Konoha-nin into the air, leaping afterwards to have an open shot at his back. The curse seal was spreading rapidly over his face now, and the boy looked as if he was struggling to keep it at bay. Naruto's heartbeat sped faster, thrumming against his lungs and making it impossible to breath through the small mouth slit. Would he have to stop Sasuke? Crush his dreams? Stop him from making Chuunin?

_Don't make me do this…_ He pleaded silently. _Sasuke…_

But just as quickly as it had arisen. Sasuke crushed it backwards, ending his match with a rather impressive display of Taijutsu, stolen clearly from Gai, but impressive nonetheless. Yoroi was out cold with a drop kick to his stomach, and Sasuke's skidded limply across the flooring.

As he struggled to get up, Kakashi appeared behind him—perverted book in hand, much to Yugao's ire—propping the young prodigy up wit his knee.

"Well, good job." Their Sensei, aloof as ever, praised, and Naruto breathed a sigh or relief.

Sasuke only looked remotely concerned.

Kakashi took Sasuke to the backrooms afterwards, the Uchiha limping, hand protectively on the vital chords of his neck.

"Captain," Naruto began hesitantly. "Do you think I could—

"Go ahead." His Team Leader smiled benignly from behind his mask, and Naruto saluted to him with a grin, before disappearing soundlessly to the other side of the room as Shino was called down.

By the time Naruto arrived, Kakashi had expertly pained seals all the way down Sasuke's back and torso, scrawling up the walls and over the flooring, the circles marked by kunai.

He hadn't quite made it into the room as Sasuke fell to the floor in unconsciousness, drained to exhaustion, but he stopped abruptly when he heard a rather frighteningly familiar voice.

"So you can even use sealing Jutsu now…I'm impressed." And then, with a dark chuckled. "You've grown…Kakashi.

The Jounin turned around angrily. "You are…"

The Sound Jounin stepped out of the shadows. "Long time no see, Kakashi-kun."

"Orochimaru." The Konoha-nin ended tersely.

"I'm sorry, I'm not here to see you, Kakashi-kun." He walked closer to the drained body behind Kakashi. "I'm here for the boy behind you."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "Why are you after Sasuke?"

Orochimaru was watching his eyes sickly, gaze moving from his masked eye to the only revealed one. "Heh, you're lucky. You've already gotten your hands on it."

Immediately, Kakashi tensed, already realized what Orochimaru was referring to.

"You didn't used to have it, did you?" The Sound Jounin motioned to his covered eye. "That Sharingan."

"I also want it." The man began again. "The _Uchiha Blood."_

"What do you want with Konoha?" The ex-ANBU cut straight to the point, aware that Orochimaru didn't come to Konoha simply to take Sasuke.

"The newly created Hidden Sound Village." The snake Sannin explained. "That's my village." And, with a smirk. "You should understand from just that."

"Foolish ambition?" Kakashi scoffed.

"Something like that." Orochimaru cocked his head.

"That really doesn't explain what you want Sasuke for, though." Naruto took the moment to reveal himself, dropping from the ceiling in a twist of his torso, and landing upright next to Kakashi.

"Naruto-kun." The man only looked remotely surprised. "I'm impressed. An ANBU already? You're shaping up to be _quite _the Uchiha Itachi…"

"Itachi and Naruto are hardly alike." Kakashi scowled lazily, as Naruto tensed at the aforementioned striking relation.

"No?" The Sannin tilted his head, before continuing on with his prior conversation. "Building a Village takes time…and many pieces."

"So Sasuke is just one of those pieces…" The Jounin trailed off as Orochimaru shook his head.

"No, no. Sasuke-kun is a very important piece."

Both Naruto and Kakashi tensed as the man took another step forward, Kakashi already in the position for Chidori, and Naruto drawing his blade.

"What you do, what you say, it won't work."

Kakashi frowned.

"You understand, that to achieve a goal…the heart will accept even the most evil power."

"_I'm an avenger, Naruto."_

The blond tightened his grip on his Wakizashi.

"That's the type he is…he's an avenger."

"So you're going to use that, to lure Sasuke." Kakashi spat.

Orochimaru shrugged, before turning away, leaving the two Konoha Nin to watch him leave warily. "He will eventually seek me out. To have the power."

As quickly as he had come, the Snake Sannin disappeared into the shadows, past the pillars.

"Sensei…" Naruto began as the man left, releasing his sword from his tense grip. "I don't understand what he wants with Sasuke. His eyes?"

"The Sharingan." Kakashi nodded, before sighing. "Maa, well. It's up to Sasuke now. You should get back to your Team, Naruto. I'm sure there worried by now."

Naruto made a move to do so, but was stuck wavering between the two. His obligations were with his ANBU team now, he was aware. But Sasuke…Sasuke was, important to him. Whether he wanted to admit it or not. Sasuke was the closest he had to a friend….to family.

Eventually, he nodded, and made it back to his team, who, as Kakashi had predicted, were troubled by his absence for such a long period of time.

Naruto didn't bother with the rest of the Exams, more concerned with Sasuke then anything else. The curse seal was…frightening. Orochimaru as well, regardless of how Kyuubi looked upon him lowly. Perhaps the fox didn't think him much of a threat, but he was surely a threat to Sasuke. And to Konoha. The rest of the prelims weren't entirely interesting, the only one Naruto bothered to watch was Sakura's—which was a draw between her and Ino, the two of them ending up out cold.

He followed Yugao sightlessly out into the open air once the preliminaries were over. The Third Exam was set to begin in a month's time, and Naruto wondered what would happen in that span.

The two met up with Hayate, to which Naruto was genuinely surprised to find was Yugao's boyfriend. He certainly looked a lot healthier in the picture in her living room.

"Honestly, I _told _you to pack the coat, didn't I?" She remarked testily in response to his sickly appearance.

Her boyfriend coughed with an eye roll. "It's Suna, Yugao. Honestly, what are the chances of it raining in fucking Suna?"

"You never know," She was mother-henning—the worst part was, Yugao was good at it. "Have you even taken any medicine yet?"

"Well no—

"What the hell do you mean, no?!" Without her mask, Yugao could look just like a normal girlfriend.

Naruto smiled at the two, before leaving them to their arguments, wandering down the street alone. He wondered what Sakura and Sasuke were up to…and he hoped they were alright. After what Orochimaru had said in the backroom…he wondered about Sasuke, and his intentions. Sasuke was an avenger, he already knew that, but would he go so far to seek out Orochimaru? After tasting the power of the curse seal?

Naruto shook his head.

Sasuke wouldn't—

"What the hell?! Miki-chan!! There's an old man _spying _here!!"

"What?!"

"Eek!"

Naruto barely had enough time before an old man leapt out from the bushes, high-tailing it out of the bathhouse's manicured lawn and throwing the telescope at Naruto. "Catch, kid!" He winked, before jogging off.

Naruto blinked. "What…?"

That was, until a horde of angry, scantly clothed large-breasted women trampled out of the bathhouse to skewer the blonde with the most scathing looks he'd ever see.

"That's him!" A blushing buxom brunette was saying to her friend. "I saw that telescope! That must be him!"

"What the hell?!" Naruto cried in surprise as they amassed group of women charged at him.

"Get him, Miki-chan!"

He sprinted for his dear life tossing the telescope as he did so to gain better momentum.

"Kick him in the balls!" The girl with the towel was crying out to her blonde friend, who was surprisingly gaining speed on him.

With an angered scowl, he jumped into the trees, leaving the girls without a trace of where he had gone to.

"That bastard." Naruto hissed to himself, sniffing the air for the old pervert's scent. "I'll get him for that one."

He sped around Konoha, a bit surprised at how far that old guy could travel. He finally made it to a bridge near another hot springs, in which the old man with a mane of grey hair was once again spying on naked women, this time with binoculars.

"What the hell was that for, you old geezer?!" He spat out, as he dropped out of the trees.

"Hmm?" The man turned around lazily, not looking all too interested until he caught sight of who he was talking to. "Oh." He blinked. "It's you."

"Yeah, it's me." He began irritated. "Thanks for sloughing off those angry chicks on me."

"Quite welcome!" He grinned. "I couldn't let them get me, it'd ruin my work! I'm writing a novel,"

He trailed off with deep theatricals, before whipping out a rather familiar looking orange book.

"My life's work!" He cried, holding the book up to the light as the deadpanned ANBU looked on.

"I know that book." He said, bluntly.

"Do you now?" The old man began to laugh. "Hah! As I expected, my novel has received rave reviews from fans of all ages—

"My perverted Sensei reads it." He interrupted, wanting to smack his forehead. "It's total crap! You must be the most perverted guy I've ever met!"

"What the hell does that mean brat?!" The old man had the gall to say, before opening his eyes again. "Listen kid, people from all over the five great Shinobi nations read my literary works, I figured even a…" And then, with surprise. "ANBU like you would have read its great plot.

"I don't read your stupid book." He began with a ridiculous amount of annoyance, before stopping once he noticed that the man was no longer paying attention to what he was saying.

Naruto blinked as the man dropped his binoculars in favor of looking at him curiously. He took note of the big, bright blue eyes, askew blonde hair, and whiskered cheeks. Yes…this was Minato's kid, alright. What was surprising was that the boy was a black ops already. Last he'd heard he was a dumb failure who had painted the Hokage mountain (certainly was his mother's kid, eh?) and not a prodigy ANBU at age twelve.

"Uh?" Naruto hedged, backing away slowly at the man's burning gaze.

He stopped, finally, and with a wry grin. "Well, you certainly look a lot like someone I used to know."

"Eh?" If possible, the blond black ops became even more confused.

But the super pervert only rubbed his nose and smirked. "Follow me! I'm going to teach you a special technique!"

Wary to the man's sudden change in behavior, Naruto pouted and crossed his arms. "Well it depends on what it is."

Climactically, the man rose to his full height, propping one of his legs up onto the bridge to salute into the air and puff his chest.

"The rasengan!"

And, anticlimactically.

"What the hell is that?"

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y

- - - - - - - -

* * *

_Alright? Synchronicity, is synchronicity! But I really have to hand it to Kelun, probably the funniest review I've read. No, my titles never really make much sense, do they? world's end rhapsody, sky is falling...cloud age symphony..._


	8. The Queen's Croquet Ground

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**ci**__t_**y**

-x-

_O_utside IN the **COLD **_distance_

Awildcatdidgrowl

**t**wo **R**iders were _a__**pp**__roach__**i**__n__**g**_

_**AND THE WIND, BEGAN TO HOWL**_

-x-

"_KYUUBI!"_

Silence. The blond skydiver tumbled down another couple feet.

Naruto eyed the frightening cliffs as they tapered off into the river.

"_Ahh! Kyuubi! WAKE UP!"_

More silence.

Forty feet. He'd be lucky if he hit the water, what with the spikes lining the bottom of the cavern.

"I'M DYING!"

The great demon stirred, or rather, rolled over. _"What do you want, you useless—_

"Open your eyes, dammit!"

Twenty feet. Above him, Jiraiya was howling with laughter. What kind of moment was this to be laughing?

"_Alright. You're falling. So?"_

"I'm supposed to use your chakra to summon a frog to save me from the bottom! Do something!"

The demon snorted. _"Absolutely not. Do it yourself."_

"What?" Naruto sputtered, wind getting into his mouth and sending him coughing.

"_You heard me. My interference would defeat the entire purpose of letting you train yourself up without my influence. If you don't want to die, which I assume you don't, I highly suggest you deploy some sort of technique to stop your fall. How about holding on to the edge?"_

"Why are you so calm about this?" Naruto asked in bewilderment. "If I die, so do you!"

The demon said nothing to this, and Naruto tried to stop his fall by hanging on to the edge as the demon had suggested, however, his grip slipped almost immediately, and he couldn't hold on long enough to use chakra to steady himself. Above him, Jiraiya called out, "That won't work! The spikes are too wet!"

"What kind of teacher is he?" Naruto hissed, more to himself then anything, more concerned with his death nearing closer then the man's poor teaching skills.

Ten feet, and then—

(some days prior)

"It's…" Naruto trailed off with a forlorn, startled look on his face.

A couple days into his training and Naruto wasn't really all too sure what to make of Jiraiya. Not that he saw much of the man anyway. Usually, the old pervert scuttled off whenever Naruto wasn't looking to spy on the women's baths and giggle perversely in dense hedges. He was a creep, that was for sure. Whenever Yugao dropped by, she made sure to give him the most scathing, evil glare he'd ever seen. She'd cross her arms and huff, as if being in his presence was irritating enough. Jiraiya didn't seem to mind, a lecherous grin on his face and his hands quick at work with writing the next chapter he had in mind—involving a young, buxom purple-haired woman.

Yugao was not impressed.

Currently, Naruto had once again been ditched by his semi-teacher near a riverside. He didn't have to look back to know that behind him a couple girls were bathing in the river, completely unaware of the chuckling man in the bramble behind them.

"It's a frog!" Naruto leapt up in joy, almost squashing the mightily tiny amphibian with his toe.

Jiraiya frowned at the distraction from his work, tottering over the rocky river bank to see for himself what Naruto was making such a commotion about.

"I'm pressed to say it's a tadpole still." Said the sage, much to Naruto's ire.

"What do you mean?" Naruto cried in outrage. He pointed menacingly towards the limp, dying ball of slime no bigger then his big toe. "It doesn't have a tail!"

"So?" The old man snorted. "You probably summoned a malformed one. It's pathetic."

Naruto seethed. "It's not pathetic. And it's a _frog_, okay? It's progress."

Jiraiya had first allured him to the subject of training with promises of an ultra-cool jutsu like he'd never seen before called the Rasengan. Apparently, the monstrous technique summoned gale winds like tornadoes, and Naruto's imaginative mind conjured a great maelstrom forming above his head, as he laughed maniacally at the great power he'd received.

Kyuubi had laughed considerably at Naruto's ridiculous and wholly overeactive imagination, hinting that he may have seen the move in combat himself. Naruto, fascinated by this, had taken to pleading with him to reveal if it really was as badass as he thought. Kyuubi, however, said nothing, only noting that it was a rather dangerous technique.

At this rate, he'd never get to find out if it was really anything like his outlandish ideas, seeing as though he couldn't even get passed the first stage of training.

He was a bit reproachful at first, but Jiraiya proved himself worthy with a summoning scroll—with his, as well as the Fourth's name on it. Naruto was immediately impressed, and had signed himself down with vigor, much to Kyuubi's intense amusement. When asked upon why, exactly, his desire to be as much like the Fourth as possible was so bemusing, the demon only laughed. Either way, that was about the most interesting thing he'd done all week, as he had yet to summon anything substantial.

Naruto was certain that if the great demon bothered to _help _him a bit, the entire process would go a lot quicker.

However, said demon had opted to sleep the days away in pleasant solitude, never answering Naruto whenever he bothered to shout at the fox. What was the point in having such a powerful advantage when it did relatively _nothing_?

Naruto snorted again, as Jiraiya turned away and went back to his spying.

"Fuck this." Naruto hissed to himself, wallowing in the deepest pits of irritation.

He de-summoned his—admittedly, pathetic—frog and tried again.

He thought it would be a lot easier seeing as though his abilities had proved exponentially over the past few months since his and Kyuubi's integration. However, he soon realized that all he'd been doing was relying on Kyuubi's influence. Even when he was in control of his mind and body, Kyuubi was still behind the scenes smoothing out chakra transitions and measuring the correct amount of chakra Naruto should be using without the blonde's knowledge.

Essentially, all the times he had been so frightened during black ops missions when he had thought Kyuubi had left him to fend for himself, the demon had been regulating chakra flow to subtly help Naruto to grow stronger and level out the difference in their abilities.

Now that he was completely devoid of the demons interference, he realized just how much his chakra control _sucked._

But perhaps he was being too harsh on himself. He did, after all, lack the thousands of years of practice Kyuubi had.

His next summon was marginally better, but still lacked any great use aside from being utterly adorable.

The frog flopped around as bonelessly as a magikarp, and did relatively nothing besides open its mouth for ragged air.

Naruto didn't find it entirely appealing to look at—a little blue thing with green spots, but when Yugao saw it, she admitted that it really was rather cute.

"But how?" Naruto poked at it, and it floundered away from his hand and near impaled itself on a rock.

Yugao shrugged, looking almost a bit sheepish. "It's… pleasant looking." Which may have been the most disturbing thing he'd heard all day.

This was the second time she'd visited in a week, and something made Naruto feel that this one wasn't for pleasantries.

As if psychic, the plum haired woman pulled out a scroll from her pocket.

Naruto took it warily.

"Ten-hundred sharp, Thursday." Which was two days from now.

"Hey, whoa!" Jiraiya scampered over, looking quite harried with cheeks reddened from slaps and a rather vicious looking slash down his chin. "This is my student here! You can't just take him out ya'know!"

"Really." She deadpanned.

"Without a fee." He ended with a waggle of his eyebrows, to which Yugao batted him to the ground with her fist, before turning back to Naruto.

"It should only take us three days at the longest."

"Three days?" Naruto wanted to groan. "But I thought I we were on leave for the Chuunin Exams."

Yugao made a noncommittal noise. "Technically. But it hardly applies."

Go figure.

"Because even if most of the black-ops are to be called in to Konoha for reinforcements, we still have to do missions at the same time. We can't have our _entire _workforce sitting around, don't you think?"

"But I'm a Gennin, too! Don't I get a break for participating?"

"I doubt it."

"How does that work?" The blonde asked mindlessly, ready to file a complaint. He was a Gennin, this work schedule was killing him! However, he wasn't entirely sure how to go about doing that, seeing as though he and the ANBU in question shared the same host body (which was his dammit! Not that parasite's!) and it would look rather strange to be two people at once. Instead, he whined to himself and continued to poke at his weak frog until it disappeared from lack of chakra, Yugao long gone.

.

.

.

"Too hot." Towa simpered from a tree. The whole place was hot and drenched in a long coating of humidity, and no matter how hard he fanned himself with the enormous leaf he'd snatched off of a questionably poisonous plant, the heat clung to his skin and heavy armor.

His teammates didn't make a move to answer him; the clearing was damp and lightless, not even a speck of sun making its way from the swathed canopy above. Yugao stood stalk still in front of the line of trees, looking near picturesque as she pulled a katana out of the body below her.

"Stop whining." She answered eventually, starting to walk forward with measured strides, and Towa awkwardly stumbled off of the large mushroom he had slouched upon to catch up to her.

"Hey, hold up there!" He scratched the back of his head. "I don't wanna get lost around here!" He fell in step behind her, peering in front of her and guffawing loudly.

In front of them, some paces away, was a struggling Naruto and a bright blue… part tadpole part frog. The blond Gennin slash back ops was struggling to turn the amphibian into a more definable species of frog, slacking off on his ANBU duties to practice work given to him as a Gennin. Towa would have been annoyed had it not been so absurd. Instead, he was just terribly amused.

"So you get mad at me for slouching off, but not him?" The childish ANBU pointed mercilessly to the frustrated blonde. "At least I was being productive!"

Yugao walked over to stand guard and lean against a tree, arms crossed. "You sat around on a mushroom and fanned yourself with a poisonous leaf. Hardly productive."

"It wasn't poisonous—" Protested the brunette, but he stopped short as he examined his hands with nothing short of horror, noting how his fingers swelled a bit above his gloves and were starting to take on a orange-ish tinge.

"I gotta agree with the idiot." Said Koga, as he dropped down from the trees, Yamato following suit seconds later. "Why does he get to spend his time slacking off and we have to do all the work?"

"Not really work." Yugao rolled here eyes. "We didn't _do _much beside run around blindly with swords and wait for the enemy to impale himself on one."

"It counts, doesn't it?" Koga snorted.

"Not really." Interrupted the orchid-haired woman. "Young Naruto is in the midst of crucial training, with none other then the great Toad Sannin Jiraiya himself."

The three blinked, and in the background, Naruto howled in frustration at another botched attempt.

"The pervert?" Koga finally asked.

"What kind of training is that?" Towa frowned. "Possibly learning a couple interesting things here and there, when the old guy's not running around out of Konoha and peaking at attractive women? The kid's probably knows more about getting himself in jail for sexual harassment then being a ninja."

"And he slacks off." Koga added.

"I'm not slacking off!" Naruto butted in with fury, feeling like he was in the Academy all over again, rather then in a poisonous jungle _with fully grown men_. "This is hard stuff, okay?"

Yugao looked pointedly at him, but the effect was lost with her mask. "It's a summoning technique. You've conquered much worse in a significantly less amount of work."

"Yeah, but," Naruto began a bit impatiently, as he redid the Jutsu with the same effects as the prior one. "I'm not using any of Kyuubi's chakra right now. I'm just trying to use my own, and be able to control it the same way I do with his."

"Shouldn't that be easier?" Koga rubbed the back of his head. "I mean… its _your _chakra. I think it'd be pretty tough to get to know someone else's the way you know your own and stuff."

"Well you're not a Jinchuuriki, now are you?" Yugao rebuked irritatedly.

Koga pushed his hands up in mock surrender to the angry, spitting cat while Naruto responded. "'Cause I use his chakra all the time. I got used to it. And I got used to him regulating chakra so I never have to know how much to use or how precise I need."

Naruto sighed. "Now I'm getting kicked in the butt for it."

The worst part was, Naruto had almost gotten used to the high he had been on for the past few months. Being Kyuubi was… exhilarating. Having so much power at his fingertips without any training made him lurch at the thought, and the blonde could completely understand how people fell to the intoxicating power. If Kyuubi hadn't shut the reserve off, and demanded with no exception that Naruto learn this technique by himself, he'd probably have never weaned off of it.

"Ah," Towa nodded as if he understood. "Poor kid."

.

.

"Hey, pervert." Naruto addressed his wayward sensei, who he had found sheltered in a tree some feet away, that way if the raging ladies came again, they'd have to climb the tree, providing Jiraiya with enough material to outweigh the pain he'd receive for his endeavors.

"Don't bother me when I'm working kid."

Naruto ignored the statement completely. "When do you think I can move on to the cool stuff?"

"When do you think you could actually summon a _frog_?" Came the rebuff.

Naruto pouted, but made no move to say anything else, opting to stand and stretch.

The sun was going down, and he supposed he should wake up early enough to take a shower as long as his hot water tank would last him (he now knew from experience that wherever they went on missions usually stunk, and that it was near impossible to stay as immaculately clean as Yugao did, regardless of what shampoo he used) before getting a large, and sadly, protein-filled breakfast before doing a couple hours worth of stretching.

"Well anyway," He scuffed his sandals on the rocks, hands in his pockets. "I'm going home." And, with narrowed eyes. "Seeing as though you're not teaching me shit."

"Don't blame the teacher," Jiraiya began, almost laughing at this point. "For the students inabilities!"

Instead of getting angry, the blonde Gennin merely walked off.

The sun had begun the last of its dying embers, and Konoha, which rose and set with the sun, was standing on its last crowds. The thinning people provided Naruto with ample time to enjoy the sunshine without any of the usual looks, and he was pleased to note that most people didn't even bother with their usual glares.

By the time he had arrived home, his thoughts had turned ten fold again, and he was beginning to wonder how Sakura and Sasuke were faring. Sasuke was probably angry with him, he wasn't sure why he had such a wrenching gut feeling on this, but he was almost certain that the Gennin wasn't pleased with him.

Last he'd seen of the two, Sakura looked drained enough to wobble on her feet, and Sasuke, as if he was brewing angrily in silent rage. Naruto supposed he was a catalyst for this, and a combination of other pieces strewn together to create enough hatred to cause the Uchiha to storm with that fiery look. Naruto had seen it before, maybe a handful of times. Once in Wave, a dense maelstrom of hate and a concern—concern for him, if he recalled correctly—so deeply evident it almost hurt the blonde to realize it for what it was.

He was important to Sasuke.

The Jinchuuriki fell into a sprawl as he tipped over his bed, eyes on the ceiling.

But how important?

The blonde turned his head, as if he couldn't bear to watch one place for too long without tiding off an overbearing swell of emotion.

They were friends…he supposed. The Uchiha probably meant a great deal more to Naruto then the blonde did to Sasuke.

In fact, he supposed that the single moment in Wave they shared was probably the most Sasuke would ever feel for the blonde, and that was a stirring of contempt and irritation, and perhaps a bit of fondness.

Nothing compared to Naruto, who idled the Uchiha to be something of his closest friend.

.

.

The following morning, and Naruto worked relentlessly on turning his pitiful tadpole part frog part sad lump of flesh into the kind of summons he'd seen Jiraiya do.

He succeeded. A bit.

His summon now reached his ankle, and while rather fat and resembling more of a pancake then anything, was certainly progress.

Even Jiraiya had said so, upon noticing the new summon about three hours after it had happened, too concerned with his ladies for much else. However, even then, Naruto wasn't really all there to receive his sentiments. In fact, he wasn't really there at all.

The blonde was too concerned with worrying himself over his teammates—if Team Seven was really considered his team at all anymore—and where he fell with them to really take pride in his minimal achievement.

Much to Kyuubi's irritation, he found that, in the small glimpses of time when he began to surface from his dreams, Naruto seemed to almost be in the cage with him, rather then where he was supposed to be, which was _controlling his body._

The fox wasn't the only one to notice this.

"Alright, brat." Called Naruto's wayward teacher, some meters ahead of the blonde. "We're gonna try something else."

"Eh?" Naruto tipped his head. And he was finally starting to get somewhere.

He didn't say much else on the subject, beckoning the young ANBU up a steep hill, and winding around a cliff or two.

Much to Naruto' curiosity, they ended their trek atop a steep hill, where the wind scraped at his hair and his eyes could find the path all the way to the bottom.

Naruto probably would have said something, had he not taken the moment to fall in exhaustion. He'd spent most of his chakra attempting to summon a decent frog. Jiraiya looked down at his young student with a sigh. This little brat was in ANBU already? Admittedly, any child of Minato's certainly had what it took to enter the black ops early, and with his temperament, there was hardly any concern for another Itachi. But how was the blonde a black ops? He certainly didn't show any particular talent other then being a few cuts above the average Gennin.

Meanwhile, Naruto was experiencing the epiphany of his life.

"_Listen brat, I'm going to save you. But you're going to do me a favor."_

Naruto was more worried about eying the upcoming ground then whatever favor Kyuubi would ask in retaliation. "Fine, fine _whatever. _Just hurry up dammit!"

The transition was smooth, as usual, and in a moment a swathing plume of smoke erupted from the pit of the jarred rock, and Jiraiya peered down and whistled. He tilted over the edge a bit to see the beginnings of an enormous frog emerge from the gathering smoke.

"Oh?" The frog looked up to the blonde with sharp eyes on his head. "I've been summoned?"

Kyuubi, however, didn't bother to reply. _"You owe me, remember that."_

"_Yeah, yeah." _Naruto sighed. _"What do you want?"_

"_Nothing that you could achieve now."_

Naruto frowned, puzzled. _"Then what—?"_

"_When the time comes, this will all make sense." _The great demon. _"Not too far in the future, you'll meet more frogs. I don't know when, but I surely expect you will, as this man is your teacher. One will give you a _key."

"_A _key?" Naruto echoed forlornly. _"Uh…"_

"_You will use it then to unlock me fully."_

"_WHAT!" _Naruto sputtered, before angrily pulling himself to the forefront of his mind.

The frog still looked up at him curiously, but Naruto had yet to do anything besides skewer the rocks with a wrathful glare.

"Let him out." He spat to himself under his breath. "Fuck that."

"What are you talking about up there, brat?" The frog grew impatient. "And who are you?"

"Eh?" Naruto looked down and blinked. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm the coolest ninja ever! And I'm the newest guy on the summoning contract!"

"Summoning contract?" The frog narrowed his eyes. "Jiraiya is here?" It snorted then. "That perverted old man. Summoning me to some random place like this."

"Jiraiya didn't summon you." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I did!"

The frog took a moment to digest this, chewing on the edge of his pipe, before he erupted into laughter. "Don't lie you punk!" It chortled. "There's no way in hell a little shrimp like you could summon me."

"You piece of shit toad!" Naruto retorted. "Course I did!"

"I'm the one who summoned you, so that makes me your master!"

Naruto rolled his sleeve down, as if making to punch the frog, who only rolled his eyes. "Got that, you stupid toad?"

"What the…" He sighed. "Who the hell do you think you're talking to, eh?" He frowned derisively. "I'm the Toad Master, Gamabunta-sama."

But Naruto had one hand wedged in his ear and his head titled to the cliffs above. "Damn, where'd that dumb pervert go?"

"Not even listening, cheeky brat." Gamabunta said to himself, before he wrapped his tongue around the whippersnapper, who yelped in surprise.

He took a giant leap and crashed onto the cliffs above, looking to pin Jiraiya, whom he assumed—seeing as though he had known the man long enough to recognize his tendencies to slack and altogether be a slothful sofa spud—would be walking away by now and leaving the poor boy to fend by himself against the Toad Boss.

However, the giant amphibian found himself looking at a signed contract, no Jiraiya insight, and a collapsed replica of the last person who had ever ridden on his head unconscious between his eyes.

.

.

_it's not the same_

_._

They were both watching.

Their eyes met, both red and black, matched together and the sky was made of rings. Thousands and thousands of bright lined edges that never really ended, and neither did their gazes.

It was him, he realized. He was staring.

But so was the other person.

The moon was crooked in the sky, and it hung limply among the stars. The crescent was filled with sharp spines—teeth, it was _leering at him_. Watching him.

_Part of him._

And there was someone next to him, and he could feel the burning claret gaze. (How he knew it was red, and how he knew they were watching him, he wasn't very sure)

But he couldn't waver his eyes from the spinning stars in the eyes of the other boy.

He caught golden out of his peripheral. A swath of spiked lemon and a bright red that burned the sides of his vision.

It was him. No… it was Kyuubi. Immediately, he recalled the beast's last words to him.

"The key." He asked. "What did you mean by that?"

The mouth moved, but no words came out of it. He tried to move his eyes away from the slowly swimming stars, but he couldn't. The voice whispered from the moon. He tried to lean and hear it. But the screaming silence kept the hushed, euphonious voice at bay.

It called to him, still, over and over again, imprinting in the back of his mind—

"Look at your eyes." Said the boy with the eyes made from stars.

Kyuubi moved to stand in front of him, his exact and perfect replica, and slided between him and the boy, until the boy with the starry-eyes melted into the stratosphere of rings.

In the reflection of the demon's russet eyes, he saw it.

_(yppah)_

"POPO-CHI POPO-CHI POPO-CHI POPO-CHI—

Naruto bolted out of his bed he almost tumbled into the window to his left.

The walls were white and closing in and the sheets weren't his own and his head was spinning and his eyes were wide and the moon, bright and _big _and _watching—_

"The… Sharingan?" He blinked slowly, whispering to himself.

Naruto awoke to the lazy Nara lounging near his bed, and, surprisingly enough, a fruit basket along with him. Naruto had never been the one to receive many visitors, and was pleasantly surprised to see Shikamaru. The sun was up, and while he remembered the clear imprint of his eyes in the reflection of something, he couldn't remember the rest of his dream.

Kyuubi, when asked upon it, stated that he hadn't the slightest what went on in the strange world that was Naruto's subconscious, and, quite frankly, didn't really want to know anyway. And Naruto wasn't inclined to tell someone so unwilling to listen.

The Shikamaru and Naruto had quite the scare when they saw Gaara looming over Rock Lee's bed, obviously intending to kill him from the blatant way he disregarded the two., no matter how flabbergasted they were as they watched him.

"What?" Naruto yelled allowed. "Why would you want to kill him?"

Beside him, Shikamaru had a grim set frown above furrowed brows. He was probably just as downright freaked out as Naruto was.

Honestly, this kid reminded him too much of Kyuubi. Granted, he also seemed to have no strange, elusive plots going around involving messed up dreams and eyes, but he had the same aloof quality to ending a life that sorely reminded Naruto that this guy was a Jinchuuriki as well.

The redhead seemed to tense away from him, the sand pausing as Shikamaru trapped him in his Shadow Jutsu.

"He can't move while I've got him." Shikamaru hissed out. Naruto stood warily by his side, crouched in a defense position. "But he's still so confident…"

"This guy's crazy." Naruto agreed. "But Shikamaru, we gotta be careful. There's something different about him."

Hah. Something different. He and Naruto were one and the same.

"Yeah, he's fucked up. And self-centered. Probably had a messed up childhood."

"If you get in my way." Gaara continued on as if neither had interrupted him. "I'll kill you too."

The blonde eyed him warily, unsure of what to say to that.

"Want to give it a shot?" He grinned, hands raised.

He pulled his fist down but still had his eyes narrowed. This guy was too cocky. So what if he had a demon? He probably hadn't gone through half the crap Naruto did. And even if he did, it didn't give him the right to be a fucking creep, and stalk bowl-cut haired boys when they're sleeping and stare down at them and contemplate choking them with sand.

Anyway, Kyuubi hadn't said a word about disgraceful behavior unfit for the body of the demon king, so he either didn't care that Naruto was being so brash as he usually was or simply wasn't paying attention.

Naruto would bet on the former.

Shikamaru bit his lip. "We know you're strong from the fight with Rock Lee." He began, trying to bluff. "But we're not bad either. We hardly used any of our strength in the Prelims. There's a lot more to us then you think."

Naruto, however, was unaware of Shikamaru's ability to lie, and with a panicky gulp side glanced at the genius. No matter how smart he was…he couldn't possibly know about Naruto's double life—

"Plus, it's two on one. You're at the disadvantage. If you listen to what we say, we'll let you leave quietly."

"I'll say it again." The redhead repeated. "If you get in my way, I'll kill you."

Shikamaru grunted, but didn't say anything else.

If anything, his calm mantra only angered Naruto more.

The blonde didn't say anything to it, however.

"This guy thinks he's tough shit." Admittedly, for a Gennin, he was. But that was hardly worth much in a society which classed Gennin as the weakest ranking of all shinobi. "C'mon Shikamaru, don't bother wasting your words on him." The blonde eyed the redhead, whose severe expression hadn't changed. "The guy wouldn't listen to you, anyway."

His statement obviously encouraged a rise out of the angered Suna-nin, as the white hands at his sides clenched into fists.

Shikamaru wasn't impressed by his bravado. "I told you to stop it! His strength is like a monster, don't you understand that?"

"Monster." Naruto scoffed. "He's no monster. He's just a kid who hides out under people's beds.

Shikamaru tensed, warily looking between the two. "Stop provoking him dumb ass!" He hissed.

Gaara only closed his eyes in a long movement, almost as if he hadn't done it at all. "Not a monster, huh? I'm sure you'll find that isn't the case."

Naruto was soon to learn that him and Gaara were much more similar than he imagined. Using what Kyuubi had already noted to him, and what Gaara was telling him now, he could understand fully where he and Gaara fit. Gaara's father had used his mother as a sacrifice to seal the One Tailed demon Shukaku inside of Gaara as a child. Obviously, somewhere along the lines the seal had fucked up and Gaara was turned into what he was now, a combination of psychotic demon and warped child.

Naruto wasn't worried. He was powerful, sure, but Naruto had learned to keep an air of self-confidence around him. Not arrogance, but an awareness of his physical abilities and how they compared to others. He wasn't scared, but Naruto's gut wrenched in pity and anxiety. The boy was unstable, insane, warped and twisted and leering at him with those wide sleepless eyes, but more importantly—

In a strange, refracted way, he reminded Naruto of himself.

Luckily, Gai was able to break them up before anything too dangerous happened, and Naruto was left to mull about until the finals began.

He tried to look for Sasuke in the mean time, an important question on the forefront of his mind, but he couldn't seem to find the Uchiha anywhere.

Sakura didn't seem to have the slightest idea where he'd have gone off to, and while her eyes looked fretful and a bit lonely, Naruto couldn't stay for very long. Sakura would surely ask him about that day in the forest, and he honestly wasn't sure what to tell her. He didn't want to ask that weird new creep on Team Seven, and he doubted he'd find any way to track the guy down. As Naruto plundered the streets of Konoha, he felt awfully isolated. He hadn't met anyone he knew today since he wok up aside from Shikamaru. He hadn't seen Kakashi, and for that matter, his ANBU team in general.

More importantly, he hadn't seen Sasuke.

On normal circumstances, seeing the duck face would probably sour his mood considerably. That had significantly changed after he hadn't seen the boy in a few weeks, resulting in their first meeting in the Forest of Death. Since then, Naruto couldn't help but be concerned over his—well, as much as he wouldn't say it aloud, friend's—ex-teammate's well being.

Orochimaru was…scary.

So was Kyuubi, but Naruto had gotten used to that. And it was different, because Kyuubi wouldn't be the first to kill him off, in actuality, he'd probably defend Naruto. Perhaps it had something to do with how untrusting and worried his name made the other ANBU, as if Naruto and the rest of his generation had missed some sort of terror that, like many scandals in the Shinobi world, was buried under years of silence.

Naruto spent a fair amount of time mulling about for Sasuke, who was supposed to be entering the Chuunin Exams today.

Naruto supposed he might already be at the stadium, but when he got in there, he only saw Shikamaru, Shino and Neji that he recognized from this high above.

"Dammit Sasuke." Naruto sighed to himself, as he made his way into the stands with his hands shoved in his pockets. "This really is the worst day to be late."

He looked around for a spot, but couldn't find anywhere that wasn't packed by crowds of people already. His eyes caught a swath of bright pink from amidst the sea of people.

"Ino-chan! Sakura-chan!" Naruto called aloud once he recognized the two best friends sitting in one of the front rows near the railing. Well, he'd have to face Sakura eventually. Might as well be now.

Sakura immediately perked up at once to Naruto's loud voice, swiveling around with a hesitant smile.

"N—Naruto?"

"How you guys been?" Naruto slid into the seat next to Ino, a bright grin on his face, and lighting up his features. "Haven't seen you in a while, Ino!"

"Well I've been busy." Ino huffed with a contented smile, pleased with the attention.

"You've been busy too, Naruto." Sakura replied quietly, and Naruto froze in his chair, while Ino's eyes turned curious to the two of them.

"Eh? Oh that's right! Naruto, why weren't you at the Chuunin Exams?" Ino teased with a smirk. "Don't tell me you didn't make it to Gennin."

Naruto shook his head, looking sheepish. "Nah, I did." He turned his eyes away to where the contesters were small, almost undecipherable smudges of color against the terrain. Shino, Shikamaru, and Neji seemed to be the only from Leaf (that were there) and he recognized the Kazekage's children from their meeting amongst the withering dunes of Suna. There was another ninja, who he didn't quite recognize from Mist. "Err—have either of you seen the Uchiha? He's not down there…"

Ino shook her head, hardly noticing the tactful change in conversation.

"Sasuke-kun hasn't been seen by anyone! He wasn't even at the hospital when we went to give him flowers!" She bemoaned aloud. "I wonder how he's doing…"

Sakura only bit her lip, the lack of unethical honorific gone from Sasuke's name. When did Sasuke stop calling Naruto "dobe", and when did the blonde stop calling him "teme"? When did they become so formal?

So distant?

"Well, either way." Sakura shrugged, a smile being stretched onto her face. "We can just sit back and relax, and cheer for our friends!"

Naruto smiled back at her. "And watch Shikamaru be a bum, of course."

Ino chortled with laughter at the jab at her teammate, and the announcer commenced the first match, after a long debate over what to do with the missing contestant. After some amount of time, they had decided upon waiting it out, seeing as though many of the crowd had come for the sole reason of watching the final Uchiha advance to the next rank.

Uchiha…

In his dream, he had seen his eyes in Kyuubi's reflection. The Sharingan was spinning in his eyes like slowly swimming fish, trance-like and hypnotic. But they were different than Sasuke's. Sasuke's were ringed only once, and had two tomoe. His pupils had been surrounded by three rings, and nine tomoe.

He frowned as Shino and the Mist nin entered the ring.

What did that mean?

Was that even a Sharingan?

"Naruto?" Sakura began quietly, as Ino left to buy a soda.

Naruto didn't say anything for a few moments, watching the two Gennin slide into offensive positions as the Chuunin proctor recited the rules. "Yeah?" He answered, finally, eyes never leaving the fight.

Maybe in intensity, or because he couldn't face Sakura in the eye.

"The reason you left Team Seven…" She trailed off, and Naruto could imagine her wetting her lips and taking a deep breath. "Is it because you're in the black-ops?"

She waited for his answer with bated breath, even though she was fairly sure she was aware of the outcome of this question.

"Sakura…" He sighed. And she noticed the lack of honorific again. "If I was, I wouldn't be allowed to tell you."

"It hardly matters, does it?" She retaliated. "I already saw the mark on your arm."

As if it burned once mentioned, he looked to his shoulder, where the cut off of his sleeve effectively masked the swirl-like tattoo.

"I wish you would have said something." Sakura spoke up again, rose colored hair brushing past her ears and framing her face. "When you walked off…we didn't know what to think. And you know Kakashi-sensei…he really doesn't like explaining things. And then Sai came along, and no one would give us a straight answer as to why he was there."

"And then Kakashi-sensei said you weren't participating in the Chuunin exams, either." She looked him in the eye then, even though his blue ones were wavering in meeting her steadfast gaze. "Because you couldn't, right? Is that why we got a replacement?"

Naruto sighed helplessly. He hated confrontation. Someone always got hurt. But Sakura had backed him into a corner, ruthlessly almost. He supposed girls were like that though, always knowing just what to say to make you feel like crap.

"It was bound to happen, I guess." He rubbed the back of his head. "I couldn't be two people at one time anymore. I _wanted _to just be Naruto, but I—" His words got stuck in his throat, and he bit his tongue to keep from saying words he couldn't.

_Couldn't be just Naruto anymore._

Luckily, Sakura seemed to understand what he couldn't say, a sweet smile at her gummy mouth, and eyes bright and bottle-glass. "I understand, Naruto." She said. "And hey, maybe next year, I'll be a Chuunin! I bet you and Sasuke will be working together long before I do, but," She pumped her fist. "I'm planning to be the best I can!"

"Sakura-chan." Naruto whispered in relief. His eyes met hers for a moment, which seemed to convey a sincere understanding and unhinged of anger or hate.

She laughed then. "Who knew you were so good, Naruto? I wonder what you've been hiding from us all those times you really sucked."

"Wha—

"Shut up you two!" Ino hopped over the seat, and plopped gracelessly into the chair and tossed Sakura a drink, popping the can of her own once she had nestled down enough to raise annoyed brows at the two of them. "It's starting!"

Naruto turned to watch the beginnings of the match.

While a large burden had been eased off of him, he still felt as if, soon, something heavy would replaced it, something of equal size and stature.

He gulped.

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y


	9. The Mock Turtle's Story

_so pairings anyone? suggestions? het? yaoi? hmmm?

* * *

_

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**ci**__t_**y**

**.**

**there's **a trapdoor _in the sun_

_some _DIE **just **to live

_immortality_

_._

Naruto couldn't claim Shikamaru to be one to amount to an amassed crowd to devolve into hoarse screams and rapid fist pumps, but he sure as hell was amusing.

The first round had Naruto leaning in his seat and tilting his head into the browbeating sun, waiting for the last punches to be thrown into the giant dustbowl beneath them and for the Chuunin to call the match. Sakura and Ino quickly followed suit, and with another round of drinks, the three were weathering out the hot sun with a unfathomable amount of boredom unlike what they had expected for the hyped up Final Rounds.

Around them, the rest of the suffering crowd didn't seem to be fairing any better.

"Sasuke, Sasuke…" Ino crooned aloud with a sigh, as she waved her hand to her face fervently, sprawled out in her chair. "That's all everyone's talking about."

"Of course." Sakura frowned and her brows bunched together, even though her eyes were deeply closed and she too was lying in her chair. "I mean… It's Sasuke-kun…" The smoldering heat made her voice a sleepy, dream-like quality.

The crowd came to an even slower drawl as a long, drawn out silence permeated the bottom arena, as the Chuunin Examinator was greeted again and again by ninja from the Hokage's suite, a continuing stream of smoke to his left.

"Do you think he'll be disqualified?" Sakura asked hesitantly, as her eyes slid open to gaze around to the annoyed—and become unhappier by the minute—spectators around her.

"He's like an hour late!" Ino groaned. "As much as I hate to say it, Sasuke-kun really set himself up for failure here."

"I know him," Naruto frowned. "He'll be here."

The blonde girl next to him only flopped her head in dismay. "How can you be so sure about it?"

He shrugged. "I'm not really sure." He admitted sheepishly. "I just, I have a feeling he'll be here."

Sakura didn't say anything to this, and the three lapsed into silence as she pondered Naruto's insight. The two had always had a deeper connection than Sakura had with Uchiha. He and Naruto seemed to be the correct amount of stoicism and optimism in one complimentary shade, and she couldn't understand how two people so mortally unalike could blend together into the perfect, almost brotherly, friends they were.

Even now, as Naruto moved away from her and Sasuke wandered off as well, they still seemed to carry a thin, intangible line of thread that kept them tied together, like a bond of blood, that she couldn't quite understand. It was almost as if it had been there the whole time.

"It's—" Ino pushed herself out of her slouched position in a hurried rush, careening over her seat.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura finished, already on her feet and leaning over the railing.

Kakashi and Sasuke stood back to back, the Jounin's leaf Shunshin carrying them from wherever they had been for so many tedious hours. Naruto sighed in relief. It seemed the Uchiha had made it after all. He grinned wryly at his best friend. He really couldn't fault him for the style. He must have picked up the tardiness from their classy teacher.

"Sorry we're late." Kakashi smiled, and Naruto almost wanted to laugh. For once, an outlandish lie wasn't immediately spilling out of his mouth.

Genma tilted his head back, chewing on a senbon with a smirk on his face. "Your name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"Is that Uchiha?" Chouji sat up from his spot next to Ino, where he seemed to have slept off most of the waiting period.

"It's Sasuke-kun." Another new voice interrupted from the side, and Sakura whirled around to see a rather abnormal bowl-like haircut.

"Lee-san!"

"Everyone's here to watch the Sasuke, huh?" Naruto grinned to himself.

Of course, getting the match to start still took some time. The sand Jinchuuriki was taking his sweet time, and being downwind from the Gennin Naruto could smell the blood in his gourd. _He's killed someone already… _Naruto thought wildly, startled by the thought. Could that have been him, crazed and warped like that? So eager to kill ad so manipulated by his demons and manifestations? Of course, there was a clear line between the whisperings of Shukaku and the twisted mortality Gaara held, and Naruto supposed that both held an equal standing in their effects on the boy.

Kakashi had somehow appeared behind the five of them, along with Gai-Sensei, and Sakura immediately asked him about Sasuke's mark on arrival. Her face split into a relieved smile when Kakashi soothed her worries, but Naruto wasn't as easily placated.

"Sensei," He began quietly. "I—

"Uzumaki."

The command was quiet enough that he doubted any of his friends heard it, but Kakashi jerked his head in the direction of a cloaked, masked figure lounging on the far wall.

Naruto turned around as well, recognizing Yamato's mask glowing in the shadows. Kakashi raised a hand, which his captain returned with a nod.

"Duty calls." Said his teacher with a quirky smile (that really could only be seen in the creasing of his eye) and a pleasant wave.

Naruto only nodded, not particularly enthused.

"I thought I was off duty…?" He began once he was in earshot, trotting over to the masked figure with a curious gaze.

His captain adjusted his mask into the light. "Change of plans."

"Did you find anything?" In particular, anything outside of the walls that could indicate where Orochimaru was hiding now. However, he only received a grim look.

"Nothing good."

Naruto stiffened.

"Suit up." Yamato turned, an arm raising from the folds of his black cloak until a glimmer of a hand waved into the distance. Naruto peered into the wavering lines of the far side of the stadium, until he could make out a hazy swath of black dotting the stadium's wall. A hand was raised in return, and the sun caught the metal of a glove and seared his eyes.

"We're meeting in the Hokage suit in five." Was all he said before he walked quickly into the shadows, blending into the inky darkness.

Naruto frowned, as around him, the stadium began a crescendo into cheers as the awaited match began. A plume of sand quickly followed, erupting into the sky before tiding back like a wave. He bit his lip. What was happening? Would Sasuke's match be cancelled, even though the Gennin had trained so hard for it?

He spun quickly in the other direction and walked hastily to the exit, cursing that he had worn civilian clothes today and figuring that if he ran fast enough it'd take him two minutes to get to his apartment and another two to get back, and he could probably somehow manage to change on the way without being a complete streaker—

"Was that…your boss?" Naruto almost jumped at Sakura's tentative voice.

He had made it into the hallway, a dim sparsely lit corridor where only the light from the doorway lit the long stretch of tile. She had her hands behind her back, and a strange, ephemeral look on her face.

He nodded slowly. "Yeah, there's apparently a problem, so, I've got to…" He trailed off, struggling for words, not knowing what to say.

At his pessimistic words, she looked up with a frightened glow. "Right now? But the stadium—

"We'll handle it." He gave her an easy smile, which felt entirely wrong. "So don't worry!"

She bit her lip, and looked tentative to accept his dismantling of her precautions.

But he was already leaping into the sky before she could ask anything else, and was nothing but a slight speck of blonde in the vast distance of Konoha. Her hand clenched to her sides, and she wondered, and hoped, that everything would be okay.

Naruto made it to his house as quickly as humanly—or, kind of inhumanly—possible, and grabbed his armor and shucked it on as quickly as possible, digging around for a couple scrolls filled with weapons, grabbed his katana and Wakizashi, and had to double back for his mask, but mostly remembered everything. He skidded to a halt on the rough pavement of the rim of the stadium. The spectators looked like nothing but bright blurs, and he could dimly make out the forms of Sasuke and Gaara below, battling it out in front of the masses.

He also spotted the Hokage's suite looking grand and spacious on one side of the stadium, with more clarity from its closeness to the top of the dome.

"Yamato-taichou." He said, politely.

The rest of their team had assembled, and he moved from one stony, expressionless mask to the next.

The Mokuton-user turned to him, giving a slight nod. Naruto wished he could see the expression behind the mask. The blonde shifted uneasily, moving to stand next to Yugao, who had her head slightly tilted as if she was watching the fighting below. Naruto could barely hear anything up here, just the soft graining of sand and the clattering of movement above the whistling wind. Every time he tried to peer below, his eyes caught sight of the unnerving Kazekage, and he stood rigid.

There was something painfully off about that man…

"Yugao," He whispered, and the woman next to him tilted her head back. "Who is that man?"

"The Kazekage." Her mask muffled her voice. "The leader of Suna."

Well, whatever Yamato taichou was conversing about with the Sandaime was quiet enough that Naruto couldn't hear a word of it, and he stood in silent testimony of those unwavering yellow eyes. Why was the man staring at him like that? Did he know who he was (even with the mask?)

Sandaime closed his eyes with what looked like resignation.

"Send them back if they haven't found anything." And, with a pointed look to the large, restless crowd beneath them, "I want all my ANBU back here for the final round."

Yamato bowed. "Understood."

He beckoned for his team to follow him as he made for the stairs.

"Yamato-taichou?" Naruto caught up to him. "What's going on?"

He shook his head. "Not sure. Sandaime-sama is calling back all the ANBU for something…" He drifted off. "I think he's nervous."

Naruto tilted his head. "About what?" But immediately, the thought of Gaara's large, restless and inhuman eyes unsettled him. He thought of the monster, which lay inside the body, the blood lust that Sasuke was facing…

"About the redhead?" Towa scratched the behind his mask.

Yamato shrugged indifferently. "Something like that." There was a fork in the hallway, and he turned to his team.

"The four of you get back to watching the crowd. If the Sandaime has reason to believe there will be danger, we're to follow his orders." He made a gesture towards the hallway to the right. "I'll be communicating with the other teams."

He wandered off then, in a way Yamato captain had a way of doing, sort of like he disappeared into the shadows.

Towa and Koga did the same, which left him and Yugao standing in the deserted corridor. Luckily, she didn't disappear as well—because Naruto hadn't the slightest idea what he was supposed to be doing, and instead, followed her—and he walked after her swishing hair into the opening, the sound of the crowd murmuring getting louder. They exited into the bright sunlight and damp heat, and Naruto could scarcely make out the fighting below.

Sasuke was displaying a taijutsu form that Naruto didn't remember him ever knowing. He was fast, surely, faster and stronger then Naruto remembered. But so was Gaara. He shivered.

"Yugao…" The woman stilled. He gulped hastily. "I think… I think there's something wrong with that kid…"

He followed her as she walked down the stairs, keeping to the shadows and blending with them uncannily. "Which one?"

"The redhead." He elaborated, debating whether to tell her what he knew or not. He decided it was worth a shot. "He's not normal."

"Obviously." She retorted, coming to a halt at the railing. There was a clear view of the rest of the stadium from here, and he could make out the fighting below with clarity, as well as the smudges of pink and yellow across the terrace where Sakura and Ino were.

Naruto chuckled. "Well yeah, but—that's not what I meant."

"What did you mean, then?" She looked half interested, scanning the perimeter.

"I mean…" His voice lowered. "He's like me."

Yugao stilled, and turned to him.

"What do you mean by that?"

"He's a Jinchuuriki." Naruto explained. "I can tell—err, Kyuubi can. But he's not like me. He's, he's crazy. I think he's going to kill Sasuke."

Yugao digested the information, crossing her arms. Below them, Gaara had cocooned himself in a ball of sand for some time now Naruto studied the side of her mask as she leaned over, looking intently as the Uchiha planted himself on the wall, unmoving.

"Who else knows of this?" She asked abruptly.

Naruto blinked. "Err—no one. Why?"

"This would explain how Kyuubi was able to sense him…" She muttered.

"Eh?" Naruto tilted his head.

"A while back, we had a mission to River country. Do you remember anything like that?" Naruto shook his head. "The sand made it impossible to see anything beyond a couple meters, yet somehow, Kyuubi was able to perceive a group of Suna-nin heading our way. When I asked him, he said he could 'sense' them. At first I had thought he meant like some sort of technique, but now I understand…"

Naruto hummed in agreement. That sounded correct. Kyuubi had always been able to tell when Gaara was near—he supposed the same would occur with all other Jinchuuriki.

But there was something odd about the way he worded it. He could sense the smallest part, he'd say. Naruto couldn't understand what that meant.

"Either way," Yugao finished her musings. "This is important to know; we should report this to—

She didn't end her sentence, as a shrill cry of thousands of birds echoed around the dome, a sound quite familiar to her. She paused, and Naruto did as well. While Naruto had never heard anything quite like it, Yugao was well acquainted with the sound and swirled around immediately, looking for the cause of it. She had expected to see a white-haired Jounin surrounded by an mass of twisting electricity, but instead, she saw a dark haired boy with a hand of electricity.

"The Chidori…?" She breathed in wonder.

Naruto watched as well, morbidly fascinated at what his rival could do. "What's that?" He whispered in awe.

"Kakashi-sempai's famous technique." She explained, looking amazed. "It's an assassination jutsu; he's infamous throughout ANBU for its usage. It's called the Raikiri, because it's said to have cut through lightning. To think, he taught it to a Gennin…"

Naruto was impressed as well.

Sasuke heaved his fist into the giant ball of sand, puncturing it effectively and causing the arena to shake in small tremors as the momentum was absorbed entirely. There was a sick moment of silence as nothing happened, an accumulation of all the arena holding their breath, eyes widened in fascination.

The quiet didn't hold for long, as Gaara began to scream.

Sasuke pulled away, looking as if he had drawn blood, a clawed hand of sand following him out. The dome of sand dribbled to the floor, leaving a wounded Gaara in its wake. If Naruto had suspected Gaara to be strange before, he now had overwhelming proof. Not only did he look maniacal, but his _smell, _it reeked like nothing he'd ever smelt before. Like hatred and bloodlust and irrational madness.

Around them, a hush descended.

Yugao whirled around, eyes widened. "Genjutsu—!"

Naruto drew his hands up immediately. "Kai!"

Yugao did the same, looking around the slumped civilians to where fleeting dark coats were making their escape. She could see the other ANBU team stationed looking around as well.

And then her eyes widened. "Hokage-sama!"

The purple-haired kunoichi leapt onto the railing, taking two strides before jumping onto the wall and running horizontal, making for the Hokage's tower. She was stopped, however, by a cloud of smoke, which erupted straight in the center of the arena, giving Naruto enough time to jump after her. Luckily more black-ops teams had arrived at the stadium, and Naruto could make out two figures leaping out of the Hokage's suite and into the distance, pursued by more ANBU teams.

"What's going on?" He panted beside her.

She shook her head. "This is bad." She hissed. Towa came up beside them from his station on the roof. "Nine traitors…" She spat.

Beneath them, the Kazekage's children along with their teacher had assembled, the redhead on the ground, head in his hands. Genma had moved to stand over Sasuke in the face of the four now traitorous Nin. Naruto found his gaze wandering to them, wanting more then anything to jump next to Sasuke, but found himself wavering between his duty as an ANBU and his duty as a friend.

"Team Aoi and Kiroi are in pursuit of the Kazekage, along with Hokage-sama." Towa was explaining.

"Well what are we supposed to do?"

"I—" He paused "I don't…there aren't any official orders."

"Screw official orders!" Yugao growled. "Protect Konoha, there's your official order."

She turned to Naruto. "C'mon, we'll find Yamato-taichou and Koga and see what we can do."

Naruto swiveled back from where he had been more concerned over Sasuke, a confused look on his face like he hadn't heard a word of the conversation. "Err—what?"

If Yugao hadn't had her mask on he'd have seen the utterly exasperated look on her face. She knew Sasuke was his teammate, and he was injured, but Naruto had to realize that he wasn't a Gennin anymore—Sasuke wasn't his teammate anymore, and more importantly, he had actual duties now.

"Naruto." She said. "Come on. We're leaving."

"But—

"I know he's your friend," She cut off with little patience. "But there is an _invasion_ going on right now, the Hokage might be in terrible danger, and our first priority is to _protect Konoha_. Not our friends."

Naruto looked stricken. "I know." He sighed.

He gave another look to Sasuke, who was crouched on the ground, clutching his injured arm. Would Sasuke fight as well? He wasn't in any condition to…

"They're getting away!"

Naruto jumped off on the wall, landing on the railing some feet below.

Yugao made a move to go after him. "Naruto!" She barked, angered beyond belief that even now, the boy would disobey orders. "What are you—

"Gaara!" He pointed to where the two siblings were heading over the wall. He turned to Yugao, pleading almost. "No one else knows that he's a Jinchuuriki Yugao!" He paused. "And I'm… I'm really the only one who can stop him. I have to go after him!"

She looked as if she was debating it, before she sighed. "Alright, go." She turned back to Towa, who was looking confused over the whole debacle. "I'll tell Yamato. You, Towa! What are you waiting for? Let's get moving!"

They jumped onto the roof, Towa already leaping into the sky, but Yugao turned to him. "I'll catch up to you, okay?"

He nodded.

"This is your first solo mission as a black-ops." Were her stern words, before she too disappeared.

Naruto took this as fair warning before he took a jump into the center of the arena, where Genma and Sasuke still were.

"Genma." He called, at the same time Sasuke cried, "What's going on?"

"Sorry, but the Chuunin Exams are over." The Tokubetsu-Jounin said to the Uchiha. "You go pursue Gaara and the others."

Sasuke didn't look pleased with the answer. "You're already at Chuunin level. Go make yourself useful to the village." Genma waved him off.

Sasuke looked miffed, but spotted Naruto walking towards them.

The Jounin noticed the ANBU. "I'm going with him." Naruto insisted. "Gaara is… a special kind of opponent."

"Dobe." Sasuke stood, hands in his pockets.

Naruto smiled at the insult. "Teme." He greeted, before making a move to jump over the wall of the arena. "Let's go?"

The two made their way into the forests surrounding the arena, light scarcely making its way into the dense shrubbery. Naruto peered at Sasuke from the side of his mask. To think the Uchiha was able to grow in such a short amount of time… it was incredible. Gai's prodigy, Lee, was apparently the fastest Gennin of their generation. However, Sasuke was able to become on par with Lee with just a couple weeks to crash course on his speed, where it had taken Lee years to do so.

Maybe it was just the Uchiha genes. Maybe it was just Uchiha in general. He'd never met any other beside Sasuke, but Kyuubi seemed to have an innate hatred for the clan in general. Naruto had never actually asked the beast it in particular, but the simple notion of Sasuke made the beast angered. The really surprising part, was that not only was the demon fox angered by the presence of the Uchiha prodigy, but he was restless as well. Naruto couldn't figure it out…

Speaking of the fox, such close proximity to Shukaku seemed to have awoken him.

"Naruto…" Sasuke began slowly, as they continued on.

He tilted his head.

"When did you become…" The Uchiha gritted his teeth and looked away at this. "ANBU?"

Naruto took a moment to try to assemble a proper response. At some point, he'd have boasted that he'd increased to what some consider the most high-ranking position that a ninja could receive, sans Kage. Now, he didn't know what to say.

"A while ago." He decided upon.

The answer obviously wasn't what Sasuke wanted to hear. "How?" He hissed through clenched teeth.

And there was the real tricky part.

What was he supposed to say to that? Without telling Sasuke his darkest secret?

They met up with Shino, the bug user hadn't changed from what Naruto remembered of their academy days. He still creeped him out, and he still wore dark glasses that shrouded his eyes. "You guys go on ahead," The Chuunin said, when they met up with Kankuro, one of the Kazekage's children, and a user of puppets. "I'll keep him off your back for a couple minutes."

They continued on, and Naruto was grateful for the distraction from questions he didn't want to answer. It didn't last long, however.

"How do you know where you're going?" The Uchiha asked.

"I—" Naruto thought out how to word this. "I can sense him, I guess."

"How?" The Uchiha prodded. Sasuke had never really taken an interest in him before. They had been rivals, yes—still were to some degree. But Sasuke had always assumed that he was the better of the two. He had the Sharingan, he had the lineage, and he was the genius. Naruto, orphan Naruto who was dumber then a rock and loud as hell and didn't have a bloodline or a special technique (or so the Uchiha thought) was somehow his equal.

Naruto didn't say anything, and Sasuke became more angered at the lack of response.

He used to know Naruto.

Naruto was blonde like the sun and couldn't whisper. He had a shit-eating grin and he wore too much orange to possibly be a ninja. He was obnoxious. He failed his Gennin test three times. Almost did it again, but somehow he passed. He couldn't make a Bunshin (but he could make a Kage Bunshin). He was helpless and useless on missions (but he had incapacitated Haku, a feet which Sasuke, even with his Sharingan, couldn't achieve). He was stupid and he was clumsy and he was the dead last of the academy, dead last of all the Gennin, and, he was a member of Yamato's black-ops team.

Sasuke had come to the sickening conclusion that he didn't know Naruto anymore.

Naruto was out of his reach.

Naruto walked away that day, hands in his pockets. He was wearing drab looking clothing, was Sasuke's first thought when he arrived at the bridge. Naruto looked marginally less dumb with a dark fitted blue shirt, and Shinobi slacks, headband around his neck. He looked sad, too, like he didn't understand himself anymore. But Sasuke wasn't going to say anything to him about that. Sakura was pestering him, but she moved on to him when he arrived. Naruto took the lack of attention with glazed eyes, a confused and wrenching look on his face, twisting the smiling features Sasuke once new into a warped version of itself.

Naruto walked away from them, and Sasuke was about to call out, _"Where do you think you're going, dobe?" _We haven't gotten to fight yet. We haven't sparred yet. You haven't proven yourself to me yet. I don't want to admit you're my equal yet.

He didn't say any of those. Naruto walked away, hands in his pockets, hair limp and lemon colored, and Kakashi moved into his line of vision, until he couldn't see the boy disappear down a corner.

"_Why does Naruto get all these missions and we don't? Aren't we a team?"_

"_Well, I've come here to talk to you about that…"_

Even now, running together, miles and miles separated them, and Sasuke hated how even now the separation was palpable.

"How, dobe?" He repeated, the words seething and coming out of clenched teeth.

"I don't know, okay?" The blonde suddenly burst, skidding to a halt and breathing heavily, a fact, which had nothing to do with the speed they were running because stamina had always been Naruto's forte. "I don't know. I just can." His fists were clenched at his sides, he looked… unhinged.

"Dobe…"

"I don't know anything anymore." The blonde looked away then. So lost and confused, azure eyes hazy.

Sasuke wanted to say something. Anything.

But a scream and the sound of a body crashing into dense wood made them both freeze. The moment was lost as Naruto collected himself, breathing and holding it until he could feel his lungs burn, before releasing.

"They're close." Was all he said, before taking off into the darkness.

They must have been a couple yards away, when Naruto's radio crackled.

"_Kitsune? Kitsune—can you hear me?"_

Naruto picked it up grimly. _"Yeah, loud and clear."_

"_Rendezvous at location seventy-four with Team Aka. I'll be over in ten."_

"_Understood." _He put the radio back in its holster, turning to Sasuke. "Go on without me."

Sasuke nodded, leaping off onto another branch before he was out of sight. Naruto frowned. Sasuke had grown, sure. But he didn't know what Gaara was capable of. What Gaara _was._ The blonde cursed silently. He should have said something. Sasuke could be walking into his death trap and Naruto should have _said something._

"_Have a little faith." _

The blonde froze at the guttural voice, a deep stirring in his mind.

"_He's an Uchiha after all. They have an incorrigible ability to survive."_

—

—

Yugao's breath came out in short puffs, a numbness enveloping her, which she hadn't ever felt before. Gekko hadn't contacted her in a number of days. This wasn't unusual in the shinobi world. He probably got a mission and forgot to tell her. That was what she had thought. To think… he was dead. Killed in coordination with this invasion…

Yamato had been sending her worried glances whenever he could, tearing down the enemies with his Mokuton Jutsu, until nearly all of their opponents had been wiped out. When this happened, they moved into another fray, Yugao hurtling herself head first into the fighting, feeling her blade in her hand, ringing with blood and bones and flesh better then she could feel her own heart.

A familiar sound—looking up into the bitter fall sky, crisp in the mouth and numbing tingling ears, watching the sky crowd with the silhouettes of birds as they flock to the end of the earth, their cries louder then the quiet of the morning—and she turned around to see Kakashi's Raikiri slaughter another five Suna-nin.

"Kakashi-sempai…" She said weakly in greeting.

As a new ANBU placed on the rising platoon of the infamous Hatake Kakashi, Yugao had been thrust into the world of the black-ops with what was considered an entirely young team. Captain Kakashi was barely twenty, and the team was composed of late teens and early twenties. Kakashi had been her everything back then, the suave and handsome team leader, an impressive repertoire of Jutsu, a secret technique created all on his own, and a past which even to this day Yugao didn't really know anything about.

"Hey, kid." He rubbed her shoulder, and she resisted the urge to lean into it. Kakashi had always been a fantastic Team leader, even to this day. He'd stop the fighting, just for a moment, just for a moment to comfort her. "You doing okay?"

"Fine." She answered stiffly.

Kakashi's gaze lingered on her, before he dropped his hand. Yugao wasn't his little subordinate with puffy purple hair anymore. He supposed she could take care of herself.

The blonde some feet away, however…

"Naruto." He called, but the blonde didn't turn.

The ANBU cut down another opponent, swinging with his Wakizashi to parry the Nin's kunai, but the real attack was his hand coming from below, claws twisting into flesh and ripping organs, the Suna-nin collapsing into the ground. The blond spun and parried another blade, slicing through the other three until he was surrounded with kneeling corpses.

"Naruto!" Louder, this time.

Why wasn't he…?

"Kyuubi." Kakashi narrowed his eyes. This time, Naruto's body turned to face him.

"_Kakashi-sensei."_ There was something mocking in that drawling voice.

"And Naruto—?"

"Sleeping." The demon seemed to derive enjoyment from Kakashi's concern looking sort of amused as he shook out his right hand—the one that had been cutting through limbs.

Naruto's mask had been splintered and lay on the ground, mingling with the carnage. Kakashi repressed the revulsion he felt, seeing Naruto's face splattered with blood, smirking, red eyes lit. Instead of carrying a conversation, Kyuubi moved back in the direction towards the forest, walking over to the edge of the building they were on, looking ready to jump onto the next one. Yamato, who had been incapacitating a number of foes, stopped to halt the fox.

"Where do you think you're going?" The ANBU captain said.

"That Uchiha," The fox began conversationally, looking thoughtful. "He won't be able to last long against Gaara."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Kakashi interrupted. "I wouldn't underestimate him, either. Sasuke's been training hard, they should be about even now I'd think—

"That would be true." The demon conceded. "If Gaara wasn't a Jinchuuriki."

Kakashi's eyes widened. Yamato paused.

"A Jinchuuriki?" The black-ops hesitated. "But, Suna doesn't—

Kakashi frowned. "So… that technique, and the sand…"

"They are all Shukaku's." Kyuubi scowled. "The tanuki has the boy under his thumb, not surprising. By now, I'd suspect he's already breaking free from the boy, and is coming out." He smirked at the gray-haired Jounin, the cynical features twisting Naruto's features entirely. "You wouldn't want that demon going against the Uchiha, would you?"

"Go." Ordered Yamato. "And hurry up with it." The Mokuton-user had worked with the demon enough to know that Kyuubi _wanted _to be over there. Tenzou would go himself, if he could. But there were too many invaders, and too little ANBU, and he knew he was needed. Sending Kyuubi to deal with Shukaku—while it made a lot of sense, probably wasn't the brightest idea. Considering how little they knew of the tailed beasts and how they interacted—was his only option available.

—

—

Sasuke certainly looked worse for wear, curse seal spread over half of his face, at near chakra exhaustion.

Gaara, on the other hand, looked as psychotic as usual, a part of Shukaku splintering out of the left side of his body like a malformed hand.

Naruto kicked the other Jinchuuriki aside—no, Kyuubi did. But he had felt the resounding impact as his foot collided with the side of Gaara's face. But he didn't remember telling his body to do anything. In fact, he could hardly remember how he even got here…

"N—Naruto…?"

The blonde whirled around.

A little nin dog—Pakkun—and Sakura trotted up.

Dammit. He didn't what Sakura to see him like this—

"Sakura-chan! Get out of here!"

She looked stricken, but didn't move.

He couldn't feel himself. He was wavering, between the drowning sensation when Kyuubi took over, that feeling of floating in limbo in a place which didn't reside on this plain, and the feeling of being in control of his own body, of his mouth, of his words. But Kyuubi was still here, he could feel the power thrumming through his veins, puissant and unrelenting and so _hot searing through his veins. _But he could still see Sakura, could make out the lines of her face, of her bottle-green eyes, of her hair and how it framed her cheeks.

Gaara made a move towards her, and he willed his body, Kyuubi, all of them to move at once.

"_UCHIHA SASUKE!—_

The sand demon pushed Sakura out of the way, making a move for Sasuke as the Uchiha deftly tried to get onto his knees.

Fist met bone and both Naruto and Gaara toppled into the trees before the redhead could make impact, luckily the blonde was able to land on a branch while the larger malformed body of the Suna Gennin tumbled into the bramble below.

Naruto growled at himself, willing his body to get up. He tried to call to the fox, but it was like calling to his consciousness. Where was he? Why couldn't he hear him? There was so little noise…

Now wasn't the time to be confused.

He stood, shakily, face to face with the monster Gaara had become.

The sand, or whatever it was that seemed to be made from stone or some other material which wasn't flesh, had curled around his arms to resemble large, cracked talons. His smirk had only grown wider and his lone tail curled around him. The only part of him which even partially resembled his once human state were his sandaled feet. But mid shin they turned into sand, just like the rest of his once humanoid body.

Naruto felt sick. Was this what he would become? His seal was already broken, gone, entirely. Kyuubi muttered around like he knew it would have happened all along, but he didn't give Naruto any answers, and Naruto had never been good at piecing clues. But Gaara had a broken seal, too. If Kyuubi took over fully, would he look like this? A giant, colossal monstrosity with sad, lonely eyes?

He found himself drifting off, and his breathing began to feel like someone else's, and the familiar grip of unconsciousness overwhelmed him, blood red eyes opening and appraising the form in front of him.

"As I had suspected." Kyuubi murmured.

Behind him, Sasuke's curse seal pulsed around his neck, his hands gripping the bark as he wavered between consciousness. Sakura was slumped onto the tree, and the little nin dog was snarling.

"Are you still human?"

"I was…" A moment's pause, as if talking was laboring for the mass of flesh and sand. "Never a human…"

Kyuubi only looked mildly amused at Gaara's ramblings. He supposed he didn't look any different from a regular human compared to the monster before him in this short body, blonde hair wild and about. But it was muscled, and strong, and would have to do for now. He'd much rather take the smooth human tendons then the hunkering brute Shukaku's vessel had become.

"I am a monster…" It cackled.

A thrust of sand shot out at the nine tails, who dodged it easily, still looking thoughtfully at what Shukaku had become.

He had thought, if he could possibly lure the demon out, he could take what was his. It hurt, to be so close to another part of the Juubi, yet so far away… Without that… that man, he could never be whole again. But this wasn't Shukaku, no. This was just the little boy, dressed up in a monster's fur, playing demon. Shukaku surely was behind it, whispering words, spreading lies. But the essence, the shard of the Juubi was so marginal that Kyuubi could hardly feel it.

"No," He smiled. "You're just a human."

A beat of deliberation, and then;

"You're useless to me."

He aimed for the head, the weakest of the armor judging from the cracks splintering along the neck. He was able to shatter a side of the boy's face, cracks running along the raccoon-like snout and features. With his other hand, he drew molten flames to sear the side of the boy into glass.

"Shukaku…" He muttered, staring into the eyes.

They were diamond shaped, and he could recall the days in his memory, before his imprisonment in the moon, when his Sharingan resembled something like that, and he could see its barest reflected in the demon's eyes.

"Can you remember being whole?"

The demon inside the boy shook at the prospect, one which he had forgotten long ago without the memory as Kyuubi had. He could remember only fragments. A man with spiraled eyes. The most powerful demon. The largest of the shattered parts.

Shukaku roared, making to escape the boy.

Kyuubi flipped back onto one of the trees, feeling the thrum of power he hadn't had in a long time. He had found a way to break Kushina and Minato's seal, yes. But it was meant to be broken. Naruto was meant to overpower him, to use the key to unlock Kyuubi. But Kyuubi had a different agenda. He _needed _Naruto, needed the boy until he could have his own body back. No…not as the fox. The fox was Madara's, and he would only be placed from Naruto into the Uchiha's hands.

He needed Naruto.

For now.

But this body, even after the months of honing muscles and human tendons, of studying the body, increasing its speed and potential, strengthening its chakra coils by feeding segments of his own demonic chakra, wasn't enough for him. It would grow to be more useful, yes, but there was something that he needed the boy to do, to unlock—he was sure that Naruto could, he couldn't in his fox form, but in this human body, he was sure it could happen.

Shukaku yowled, erupting into its final form and destroying the forestry in its wake. The towering beast resembled a monstrous raccoon, screeching into the open sky and shaking the ground with its power. Kyuubi could remember the moments in which he had been free as well—if one could call being under Madara much of freedom. But his form in the fox couldn't placate him anymore… not when he remembered what it was like to have his _true _body back.

"Kyuubi…" It whispered lowly, with hateful reverence.

The demon fox smiled.

"Come out with me, Shukaku." He lured. "Don't you want to fight?"

The raccoon roared, angered from years of imprisonment, ready to destroy anything it could. Kyuubi remembered a familiar rage, after escaping from Kushina, only to be met with Madara—damn Uchiha. He had grown stronger from that event, realized how little freedom as the fox meant. He and Shukaku were so, so different now. The weakest of the parts, so shallow and _stupid,_ so easy to manipulate.

"Aren't you angry?" The blonde stalked around the demon, which seemed to cry aloud in its agreement, looking like a cat stalking its prey, amused and excited. "Don't you hate them all? What they've done to you? Trapped you in that body?"

Kyuubi doubted the demon was seeing anything now besides it's rage, ready to attack anything—even the demon fox.

"Good." He smiled.

Naruto felt himself wake up to the inhuman wail coming from a monstrous demon that hadn't been there before. His eyes widened as he looked up into the wide, diamond shaped eyes of Shukaku.

"Kyuubi—what?"

He didn't have any time to say more, as the great raccoon lashed out at him, and he crashed into branches, tumbling into the dirt. He groaned. Fuck, that hurt. He thought Kyuubi was going to take care of it, but instead, he found Gaara even more demonic looking then before, not to mention about forty feet taller, and a thousand times more angrier. All the demon fox seemed to have done was rile him up.

"_That's exactly what I've done."_

"And now you'll—wait what?" Naruto stood up on shaky feet. Above him, Shukaku roared once more, the ground shaking at the sound.

"_We've come to another block, Naruto. One which I believe you can overcome."_

"And what would that be?"

"_I need you to unlock something of mine…" _The demon began quietly. _"Which I have lost over the years. I believe you may have the ability to recover it."_

"Yeah?" The blonde wiped blood from his chin. "And what's this ability you keep going on about? Why don't you have it any more?"

"_That's neither here nor there." _The demon answered vaguely. _"If you can do this, I'll tame Shukaku for you."_

Naruto blinked. "And—can you save Gaara?" The boy was a Jinchuuriki, like him. Naruto would be lying if he said he didn't see himself in those wide, lonely eyes. If Naruto hadn't had his important people, hadn't had Sasuke and Sakura, Iruka and Kakashi… would he have turned out like Gaara?

"_I suppose." _Was the answer, ambiguous as ever.

"Alright. What do I need to get back for you?" The blonde asked bitingly. Before pausing. "Is it like a treasure or something?"

Kyuubi chuckled. "_No, nothing li__ke that."_

"_Naruto…"_

The blonde stilled at his name.

"_If you do this for me, I promise to never harm any of your friends."_

Naruto's breath hitched. "All of them? Even everyone in Konoha?"

"_Yes…" _The demon hissed. _"Everyone in Konoha."_

"Okay." Naruto narrowed his eyes in determination. "I'll do it. What do you need me to do?"

Kyuubi could have laughed at how easily everything fell into place.

"_I want you to unlock the Sharingan."_

_**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y_

_

* * *

_

_What could Kyuubi mean by that hmmm? :D Naruto is called Kitsune by his team only, Kyuubi by his team plus everyone else. The fight with Gaara is to represent the fading between Naruto and Kyuubi. There's still a line, yes. But it's blurred considerably. I didn't want to lose the manga version, but I wanted to keep my version. Ehh._

_Anyway!_

_Pairings, anyone? Anyone? Got anything? I'm at a loss here._


	10. The Lobster Quadrille

_So, I'm no Naruto expert, but I've been trying to research all the multiple ways there are to unlock a Sharingan. I recall something about life and death situations, but I also remember in Kakashi Gaiden that Obito awakened his because of his need to protect Kakashi, so I'm assuming it comes out with an overwhelming emotion over something greater than oneself, like life/death/savingothers/well I dunno. _

_TO clarify, I sort of see Naruto's Sharingan kind of like Harry Potter's ability to have parseltongue. He wasn't born with it, and you could almost say he stole it. Voldemort unintentionally gave it to Harry, a boy who, without that, wouldn't have been able to carry it. Same with Naruto. Except Kyuubi intentionally gave it to him. Because there is a… transfer of powers? I'm actually confusing myself a little. _

_Anyway…. Onwards!_

* * *

.

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**c**__**i**__t_**y**

**.**

**f**lies IN _t_h_e **v**_**a**_s_**o**line **we **ar_e_

_sometimes _**it **_blows_ m_y **M**_IN_D_

**k_eep _**_g_etting **s**_t_uc**k** here _all _**the t**_i**me**_

.

Naruto studied Gaara closely, as the crumbling body lilted beneath him, clumsily getting to his feet on a tree branch below the one the blonde was on.

The redhead jumped up for another swing at him, one Naruto barely dodged, body numb with confusion.

He landed, limply, some feet away, unsteadily supporting himself with the trunk of a tree.

"_Kyuubi…" _He trailed off, blue eyes wide in their grave sockets. _"Y—You can't be serious… I'm not an Uchiha! I'm not—I'm not—" _His eyes trailed to Sasuke. Seeing the dark-haired Uchiha elicited a variety of emotions he had once thought had been buried far into his dreams. The arcane loneliness, the sharp tangy bitterness of being rebuked once more from his peers. Of Sasuke, his back away from him, too far for the dumbass Naruto to ever catch up to.

To think, that he could achieve what that boy could achieve? That maybe, maybe they were equals… rivals? He shook his head. _"How could I be able to get the Sharingan?"_

"_Do you need a history lesson now boy?" _Kyuubi snapped cynically at him. _"How you can really isn't the pressing issue."_

As if he was grabbing Naruto with an invisible hand, he jerked the boys face and attention back to Gaara, who was watching him with sick fascination.

"_Now, no more talking. Go forth. Look, he's hurting you're friends, isn't he?" _And then, coyly, _"Even Sasuke couldn't defeat him…"_

Naruto pursed his lips.

He'd lived with Kyuubi talking in his head long enough to realize when the fox was guiding him with true, but ill-intented words. While he didn't want to comply to the fox's demands, and no doubt guide himself directly to where the fox wanted him to be, there didn't seem to be any other way to diffuse the situation. Sasuke was incapacitated, breathing labored and looking as if most of his energy was going to cutting off that crazy seal of his. Sakura was out cold on the branch. And Pakkun, well, Pakkun was a small dog. All of them were in danger.

The ANBU glared, unsheathing the sword on his back with his left hand.

"_Alright, I'll do what you ask." _And then, bitingly, _"But don't think I'll let you get away without an explanation!"_

Naruto charged at him, his sword meeting brick-like sand with a clang, before he flipped out of range of Gaara's monstrous claw. The redhead immediately switched to the offensive, Naruto parrying his strikes so close that he could stare directly into Gaara's crazed, diamond eyes. The black ops felt himself naturally searching for the opening in Gaara's defense, a move which, prior to Kyuubi, Naruto would have overlooked entirely and moved to just attacking him without strategy.

After more strikes, the blonde was able to discern its location, and aim for it with a deadly precision he wasn't aware he had.

Gaara roared and leapt backwards as he clutched his bloodied torso—as much as one with elongated rock limbs could do so—and, if possible, becoming more enraged. Naruto knew most likely that he did nothing more then anger the demon further, but there was nothing to be done.

He didn't have the slightest idea how he was supposed to unlock his Sharingan, seeing as though he wasn't awake for the only remaining Uchiha's, and Kyuubi was officially not answering his cries for explanation.

More close rang combat, and Naruto didn't seem and closer to his destination as he was minutes ago. Every solid hit he landed on Gaara seemed to knock the beast off balance for a few moments, before the boy would just pull himself back together and continue attacking. Not to mention that the sand had completely covered him, until Naruto could scarcely see much aside from the boy's sandals.

"_Dammit—where's the opening? I know there's got to be one…"_

The one where he had gotten Gaara in the chest had already closed back into a buffed wall of sand, and Naruto was running out of ideas.

Gaara sprang up once more, the two of them lashing out in the air. Naruto made to kick a formidable looking crack on his side, when Gaara latched onto his leg, twisting the both of them in the air before he kneed the blonde, sending Naruto crashing back into the ground.

But that was precise angle for Naruto to squint back up at the falling Suna-nin, and see his opening.

Before Gaara could fully impale him on his downward strike, Naruto rolled out of the way, jumping back into the trees and creating Kage Bunshin for distraction.

As Gaara went after the other two, Naruto jumped lower.

He took a breath, and, with any luck, he might be able to pull this one off.

He thought of a fire Justu—any fire Jutsu—making seals that _seemed _right, as if his body was accustomed to the seals that Kyuubi had been teaching his fingers to make in a certain order.

"Alright, alright," He prepped himself, fingers dexterously intertwining.

He took a breath. _"K—Katon… Katon…. _Uh_—jutsu—_uh… super crazy fire thing!"

Naruto managed to extract a mangled, malnourished looking fire dragon out of his mouth, with no small amount of surprise from the blonde, who was unprepared for such a backlash of the giant creature coming out of his trachea that he was pulled backwards and swept off of his feet. Without the proper control, the fire dragon twisted a bit as it shook uncontrollably, but ultimately managed to hit the weak spot underneath Gaara's tail, sending the boy in an explosion of fire, as well as most of the local fauna.

Naruto almost managed to impale himself on a tree branch, had Sasuke not intervened and lessened his fall.

The two boys ended up hitting a tree trunk with a dull thud, sliding onto one of the thicker branches in a tangled heap.

Naruto blinked at his once teammate as he made his way onto his feet. "Sasuke…"

Sasuke took one look at him, the wide blue eyes instead of red, surprised face in comparison to the impassivity he had seen in the forest of death. "Finally decided to go back to your normal self?" The Uchiha wheezed. "Even after all that you only managed one blow. …Shape up, will you?"

Naruto would have laughed harder had his spleen not hurt.

"I can't save you this time, like I did in the wave country… you dim wit…"

"Shut up, will you?" Naruto chuckled hoarsely, helping the Uchiha to stand.

He couldn't describe it, had he even the words to, but there was something clearly soothing about having the Uchiha to watch his back like that. No matter how far their lives seemed to take them… It made Naruto smile.

Although, speaking of Wave…

"Sasuke," Naruto watched Gaara with caution, as the beast shifted a bit from where it had landed among charred branches and smoke. "About that time…"

The Uchiha side glanced at him questioningly.

"How did you unlock your Sharingan?"

There was a moment of silence, before, "Why would you choose a time like now to ask that?"

Naruto huffed, looking distinctly annoyed. "What does it matter? Just answer the damn question!"

Sasuke turned away then, a frigid look to his face. "It came from… great emotional distress."

Naruto could have scoffed. Could the guy be any more vague? And on that note, dramatic? "So… does that mean you were really angry? Or upset?"

Naruto thought back on their journey to Wave. What could have made Sasuke so upset? Or angry, even? Haku, besting him? Zabuza, taunting them all?

Or was it…

"Hey… Naruto." Sasuke twisted the conversation away, just as Naruto realized. "Sakura, you have to save her no matter what. I know you can…"

"Once you've got her, carry her and run as far and as fast as you can…"

Naruto furrowed his brows, a bit enraged that Sasuke thought he would let him do this all by himself. "Sasuke…"

"I already lost everything once before… I don't ever want to watch those dear to me die before my eyes again…"

_Those dear to me…_

The Uchiha leapt away from him before Naruto could say anything else. The blonde smiled secretly.

"I get it…" He whispered to the cold, silent air.

In Wave, Sasuke had saved Naruto. He had activated his Sharingan in the process of saving the blonde's life. He had been angry at Haku, at himself for not being strong enough, and at his death, which seemed imminent.

Like strength, his Sharingan was awakened through his need to protect others.

Naruto leapt after the Uchiha.

Sasuke had already been weakened, with fighting his own match with Gaara, and then again in the forest, and by continuously combating that crazy seal of his, so it wasn't any surprise that Gaara was able to knock him away without much effort. Naruto jumped to his side, where he was rubbing at his seal as if it troubled him a lot more then whatever damage Gaara had inflicted to him. It was so black it was near purple, swirling at the neck like inky fangs sinking into his tendons. His dark eyes were stormy, watching Gaara rearrange his stone limbs into order once more.

"Don't worry about that guy," Naruto gave him a thumbs up, which the Uchiha blinked at. "I'll take care of it."

Deciding that it was better to stick with the techniques he _did _know, instead of the ones his fingers fragmentally recalled as if they were out of a half-remembered dream, he whipped out a couple dozen Kage Bunshin, and proceeded to attempt to overpower Gaara.

Sasuke watched with morbid fascination as Naruto once more conjured up an overwhelming amount of Kage Bunshin, after already attempting to harness a Karyuu Endan, one of the hardest—if not the hardest—Fire Jutsu. He could feel Orochimaru's curse seal pulsing with his heart, as if whispering his deepest desires, his sickest dreams in one dull thrum. Everything he'd ever been jealous of, Naruto's strength, his imperviousness to hatred, his ability to overcome the darkness that presided so heavily over the rest of humanity, they all seemed to caress him longingly, false promises that he didn't know were fake anymore spoke in his thoughts.

The Bunshins did overwhelm the Suna-nin, for a few moments at least.

"Wha—What the…"

Sasuke looked up, where the giant raccoon had managed to splinter apart trees in its rapid growth, nearly a hundred times larger then it had been previously.

Naruto too, looked up at the gigantic raccoon, which now towered over the entire forest.

_Shit_.. He had used up all his chakra with those Bunshin. He had sensed that Gaara was already tired out, and had been sure that one last entourage of blows would be able to take the guy down. Obviously, he had underestimated the other Jinchuuriki. The tanuki was larger than Gamabunta, and stood menacingly overtop the forest, peering down over his snout as he growled about, gigantic paws swiping the tops of trees off with small flicks.

Naruto cursed once more under his breath, unsure of what to do next.

His reserves were so low that if he attempted to use any more, he'd probably lose consciousness.

Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, as he had been gifted with another limitless supply, that was only double-edged with the fact that each usage warped him even more into the hateful, twisted creature Kyuubi had become, that the chakra was deadly to humans and their chakra coils, and the fact that _it could only be accessed with the demon's consent. _

Not to mention the fact that Gaara didn't seem to have this issue at all…

The giant raccoon swung its large tail, effectively barreling over what could have been a tenth of the forest, the trees to Naruto's right falling over like lopsided dominoes, almost hitting—

"_Sakura!"_

Naruto leapt to where she was pinned to the tree lifelessly, cutting through the sand with a kunai and jumping away with her before her tree crumbled to the ground as well.

He laid her near Sasuke, who was watching him with wide eyes.

"Naruto—!"

But the blonde paid him no mind.

He knew he couldn't keep this up for much longer. Sakura was already out cold, and Sasuke was well on his way there, his freaky seal almost completely taking over the side of his cheek.

Naruto couldn't do anything about Kyuubi's toxic chakra, nor its ability to change his psyche. But… maybe he could…

As if pulling it out of a deep pit of tar, wedging up Kyuubi's chakra from within him was almost the most excruciating thing he'd ever done, bringing him to his knees and almost forcing him to throw up. The demon wasn't of much help, crying in anger and attempting to throw Naruto out of his body—a feet which, after many times of the two switching, seemed to become harder and harder—as he tried to wrench his chakra back.

"_What do you think you're doing? ! ? You don't think you can best me—_

But Naruto gave one last wrenching tug, yelling aloud with the force of it and, like pulling a cap where it had been tightly clasped in a bottle, the chakra popped out so forcefully Naruto could hardly contain it, suddenly finding himself overladden with toxic chakra that it pooled around his feet, melting the bark of the branch he was on.

There was a moment of silence, as Kyuubi seemed to shocked to do anything more then stare in silent, sick interest as his very own chakra responded to Naruto's will over his.

"_You DARE to take my chakra away from me! ?" _The beast began once he had collected himself, angered. _"Just who do you think you are, boy? _**"**

But Naruto didn't answer him.

There was something warm and wet trailing down the side of his nose, and he quickly dabbed at it with his finger.

He pulled it away to find the tip glistening with crimson.

Blood?

He took out a kunai, studying himself in the glinting reflection.

"_The Sharingan!" _

The world which he used to see now felt like a blurry, hazy dream made of glass. The world he saw now, full of clarity and perfection, made him loose his balance, pivoting a foot behind him to keep himself from keeling over. Everything was so _real, _so _clear. _The limpidity of the sky everlasting, the round, buffed head of Shukaku twisting to find its prey.

Was this how Sasuke always felt like?

Like he could take on the world, and then some?

Naruto narrowed his eyes—the Sharingan didn't hurt at all, and in fact, if Naruto hadn't seen them, he wouldn't have thought his eyes looked any different—tracing the now precise lines of Gaara's visage.

Naruto used more of Kyuubi's chakra to summon Gammabunta, the demon's will almost completely nonexistent at this point. Naruto almost suspected that the demon was actually allowing him to do so now, as the fox purred contentedly from the back of his mind.

"_Good… very good…"_

Naruto ignored him in favor of steering Gamabunta In front of the monstrous tanuki, which roared in delight at the face of its new prey.

Naruto studied the demon closely, looking for some way to break its defenses.

"_You've accessed the Sharingan, as I knew you could."_

"_Yeah—don't think I've forgotten about that, you crazy fox." _Naruto glowered. _"How the hell did I get this?"_

"_The explanation will come later." _]Naruto invariably knew the ninetails was lying. _"But for now, let me deal with the demon."_

Not that Naruto had any choice in the matter.

Their transitions had becoming smoother, almost unnoticeable, but yet Naruto still felt as if he was conscious of what was going on—a trait which certainly hadn't been there before.

Kyuubi squinted at the corpse-like boy protruding out of Shukaku's body. The redhead was obviously the medium, and judging from his dark lined eyes Shukaku must torture him day and night, threatening to eat his very soul if the boy dares to close his eyes.

Kyuubi grinned as the boy began to spell himself into fake dreams, letting Shukaku out in the process.

Shukaku was so pleased by his 'cunning' escape from his jailer, a feat which Kyuubi had not only surpassed, but had also used to his advantage, that Kyuubi almost felt sorry for him. The Sharingan was a weapon beyond the capabilities that humans would ever be aware of. Aside from Madara, Uchiha wasted their power on mundane things, like simple advanced sight and copying Jutsu. But Kyuubi knew better then that—he knew of the eyes' greater powers.

But alas, that was far off in the distance. And for now, he was simply pleased with unlocking them.

Shukaku roared in glee. "I'm free! Free!" He turned to Kyuubi, who was watching him with lidded eyes atop of the giant frog. "And here's someone I want to kill right now…" He drawled, turning his enormous body to face the nine-tails fully.

Kyuubi tutted. "Frog." He called with no small amount of distaste to the summon below him. "You're dismissed."

"But boss—" Gamabunta stuttered. "Are you sure that's—

"_Go_."

The toad grumbled, before disappearing in a giant plume of smoke, leaving Kyuubi to drop back into the tree line.

Shukaku charged, and Kyuubi leapt atop his snout, gracefully maneuvering Naruto's lanky body to the demon's weak spot—the sleeping human. It only took one kick to the boy's temple to knock him clear out of Shukaku, collapsing the giant raccoon demon into shattered, roaring dusty sand.

The redhead fell limply with a thud onto the forest floor, a nasty looking bruise next to his kanji tattoo and already starting to wake.

Kyuubi landed on his feet some feet away, crouching his knees on impact as around him, the only remains of Shukaku's almost escape spat onto the ground in sandy remains. Tufts sprayed over Gaara's face and into Kyuubi's hair.

The boy was climbing to his feet, struggling as he did so, as Kyuubi flexed one of Naruto's hands. The tendons ached in protest, no doubt due to the body's already obvious strain, and the toxic chakra coursing through its torn chakra coils. He supposed that perhaps he had taken the little human's body for granted—underestimated it, even. The bones and ligaments had taken a beating continuously, finding the strength to repair themselves. Even the chakra coils seemed to have created some sort of resistance to his demonic essence.

And now…

He smudged off the dirt on Naruto's ANBU gloves, where the metal plate that covered the back of the hand glinted dully beneath the grime. He pulled it up to his face, to admire the newly awakened Sharingan, making it's slow swim in his eye.

Yes, perhaps he _did _need to give the boy a bit more credit. He had been useful, after all.

Naruto blinked, suddenly becoming aware of where he was.

He lowered his hand, rubbing at his eyes weakly like he had just eased himself away from a fuzzy, soundless dream.

Damn. He was tired, and aching all over.

As if suddenly catching his attention, Naruto focused on the other Jinchuuriki, who was struggling to get to his feet, panting heavily.

He looked upon him with an almost overwhelming surge of sympathy. "We're the same… you and I…" He whispered quietly, as if he couldn't quite believe it himself.

Gaara charged at him; he charged back. The two ended up tossing through the dirt, rolling into a slow stop some meters away from each other. Naruto willed his body to move—all those months of meticulous training, of ANBU missions and chakra lessons, and yet somehow the only thing he could move was his head? !

Maybe it was his stubborn personality, his inability to give up, or the near translucent reflection of himself he saw in Gaara, but he pulled himself closer to the redhead.

Sensing him move, the other Jinchuuriki choked. "My existence won't be put out…" He grounded out, taking Naruto's movement as the blonde's attempt to finish him.

But Naruto didn't stop.

"…D—Don't come closer! !"

"I understand… being alone, incomplete. What you must feel…" He choked out softly, almost surprised himself with the hitch in his voice. As if he hadn't quite understood how much he and Gaara were alike until he was a few feet away from him, watching his scared, bitter eyes that reminded him of his own. "What your pain must be. I get it.."

"But there are people who helped me get through it." He added, attempting to use his arms to pull himself up to his elbows. "People important to me."

Their eyes met. "If you ever try to hurt them…" If Gaara was surprised with the Sharingan spinning intimidatedly in his eyes, he made no comment on it. "I'll kill you."

The blonde shakily got to his feet, knees almost buckling with the pressure. All this fighting, the hundreds of nin that Kyuubi had taken pleasure in dissecting, that fighting with Gaara, his near chakra exhaustion made it a struggle to even get to his feet. The redhead's eyes followed his movement, as he took a deep breath and attempted to turn off his Sharingan.

Once he did so, he felt some of his strength come back to him.

Sasuke barreled out of the bramble, looking more exhausted then Naruto.

"Sakura's all right now." He panted, surprised to see Naruto on his feet. "This guy's out of chakra, and Sakura's been saved from the sand."

Sasuke, it seemed, wasn't the only one anxious to meet their teammate. Gaara's teammates, the ones Naruto had seen that day long ago in the forgotten desert, leapt

down from the trees. The girl with the four pigtails looked especially ferocious, but Naruto might just be thinking that in Shikamaru's plight.

The two readied to attack, but Gaara stopped them.

"That's enough…" He rasped, turning to face the sky. "Stop it."

Kankuro looked back, brows furrowed, before he resignedly eased out of his position. "I understand…" He bent over to swing one of Gaara's limp arms over his shoulder.

The three departed with their incapacitated teammate mere moments after.

Naruto shifted his weight uneasily, feeling that even though he had made it out through a great battle, the worst was still to come.

As if acting on his thoughts, Yugao sprung through the trees, snapping Naruto out of the fearful weight on his shoulders. Her mask switched between him and Sasuke, before inevitably falling on his shorter visage.

She seemed to take in his battered appearance, before continuing, "Naruto…" There was something broken in her voice, something Naruto hadn't heard in it before.

"Yu—Neko.." He corrected himself wisely in front of Sasuke.

There was something… off about her—the usual poised countenance which followed her like a silent grace seemed thrown off its equilibrium—a feat which Naruto had never experienced before, and he felt the hairs rising on the back of his head in apprehension.

"What's wrong?" He asked her lowly, voice almost muted.

She faltered, before shaking her head. "H—Hokage-sama… he's been—" She choked, and for a brief, terrifying moment Naruto wondered if behind her mask were tears. "The ANBU have all been summoned for a meeting immediately."

Naruto nodded wordlessly, before turning to Sasuke.

There was a halting moment, where their eyes met and it was as if nothing had changed at all.

The illusion shattered however, as Naruto began softly, "Take care of Sakura." Before he leapt into the trees without noise, Yugao joining him.

Whatever he had expected, this wasn't it.

Naruto and Yugao leapt through the village like small blurs, their feet barely meeting one roof before blasting off to the next.

The purple-haired ninja lead him to a rooftop, which looked as if it had seen greater days. Trees grew atop it, and a wraith-like clout of smoke simmered in the air like quiet death.

They arrived to silence, a crowd of ANBU standing, but unmoving.

Naruto noticed Yamato, who was silently staring into the gray colored sky.

"Yamato-taichou…?" Naruto looked around, before turning to Yugao. "Yugao, what's…"

Yamato turned to him, expressionless. "The Sandaime's dead, Naruto."

.

.

.

.

The sky spat out torrents of rain, like glossy sheets which pelted the roof of Yugao's apartment wave after wave.

As he sat on her couch, waiting for her, he wondered for a few moments that; if he had been a Gennin still, would this be his first time wearing anything but orange? If Kyuubi hadn't burned all his jumpsuits, and had he never joined ANBU, there'd never be a reason for him to wear anything else. It was a warped thought in the back of his head, and one he'd rather not dwell on. There were many uncertain things in his life, and most of them he realized there was very little he could do about it.

But there was one thing he was certain of.

Yugao couldn't be left alone.

The Sandaime had been important to him—perhaps more so then he was to most people. He was almost like Naruto's grandfather, watching out for him without ever fully interfering. Naruto was aware that it was the Hokage who made his teammates keep a close eye on him, who had placed him on Yamato's—one of the most reputedly docile ANBU captains available—team.

And while there was something incredibly unnerving about his death, he knew that whatever he was going through Yugao must be having it almost a hundred times worse.

Naruto hadn't the chance to talk to Kyuubi directly, as for most of the day ending the Chuunin Exam fiasco he and the other ANBU struggled without their leader, relying on each other and other shinobi in the village to repair the damage. Naruto wasn't sure what the village would have done without strong leaders like Yamato and Kakashi-sensei stepping up to control the chaos.

For the most part his Gennin friends seemed lost and unsure of what to do, helping to repair some of the damage and doing what were normally considered D-rank missions for free.

This was part of the reason why he was where he was, waiting in Yugao's sitting room, watching her bedroom door anxiously for when she would come out.

All the pictures of Hayate remained glimmering in the dull foyer, as if losing their brilliant memory with the relentless tousle of clouds out in the sky. Naruto wondered what it felt like to lose someone so close to you, and thought of the separation of his teammates. Compared to this, it seemed to meager.

"Sorry about that," She closed the door, and Naruto had to almost lean to hear her soft voice. "I didn't think it would take this long."

Naruto had never seen her in anything other then Shinobi slacks and ninja attire, so the dress sort of threw him for a loop.

"Uh—its fine." He stammered, quickly getting up and walking with her to the door.

The two of them—actually, the whole village—looked unnaturally somber, dressed entirely in black. Figures made their way to the roof where the ceremony was going to be held, moving like black ghosts across the streets. Naruto wasn't sure where Yugao was going, but he followed her through the downpour nonetheless. In her hands were white flowers, looking fresh compared to the bleak world around them.

Eventually, they made their way to a familiar looking stone, cleared away from the trees. Naruto couldn't quite place when he'd been there before, until he saw a dulled figure, also in black, hovering before it.

"Kakashi-sensei…" He whispered into the rain, surprised.

His teacher had his hands in his pockets, poofy hair somehow tamed by the elements and almost looking droopy. Of course, he still had his mask on.

"Are those for Hayate?"

Naruto wasn't entirely surprised that Kakashi could hear them over the rain.

Yugao moved closer, laying her flowers onto the stone engraved with names. "The ceremony for the Sandaime is about to begin. If you don't…" Whatever she was about to say, she stopped with a side glance to Kakashi. Naruto could guess it had something to do with his notorious reputation for being an all around slacker.

"Kakashi-sempai," She started anew. "You're here for Obito-san, right? You're always late for examinations. Is it because of some special cause?"

Naruto had never heard of this before.

He had always just sort of assumed Kakashi was late because he was a lazy ass.

"I actually was always very early." The man looked down. "But I didn't know what to say when I got there. I used to be foolish, and did meaningless things all the time…"

He pushed his hands deeper into his pockets, suddenly reverting back to his usual slouched posture. "Maa, and how are you, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde started. "Uh—good, I guess."

Kakashi's expression when he turned around looked no different then it had ever been, but Naruto wondered if it had changed before, when he had been speaking.

"You seem to be healing fast." He remarked, taking a look at all the bandages over Naruto's face.

"You didn't see me before." Said the blonde flatly. A day ago he clearly looked like he'd been mauled by a couple attack dogs and tomahawked in the back. He didn't look very different today, either.

The three made their way to the Sandaime's funeral, which was a solemn affair, quiet aside from the pelting rain which scoured the vigilant watchers. The Sandaime's coffin was open, drenched, and empty, aside from a picture of his smiling face. Even the many bouquets of flowers, looked like dulled blotches of color.

Naruto had a certain understanding of death—vaguely, in the back of his head. Killing people was one thing, a normal thing, as the job description of shinobi comes and goes. The death of a loved one, of someone close, was something that shook Naruto more then he liked. Many people died in the invasion—Hayate, Yugao's boyfriend, dozens of ANBU, of Chuunin and even civilians—including the beloved leader of the leaf.

Naruto wasn't sure what to feel.

Yugao was a still presence beside him, her eyes sightlessly watching the misty rain in front of them crawl wraith-like through the crowd.

The Sandaime had given up his life to save Konoha—to stop Orochimaru, to save his village, his people, and his friends.

Naruto vowed to do the same.

.

.

.

It didn't matter how much he grew or how far life took him, Naruto would always be at Ichiraku Ramen.

This fact was what essentially made him so easy to find for Jiraiya.

"I heard this is where you go all the time." The Sannin smirked. "Huh, and to think that they were right…"

Naruto paled considerably, and cringed.

"Oh—no…" He spat out his ramen. "_It's you!"_

A pause, and then,

"The Perverted Sennin!"

"I don't appreciate that…" The Sannin sighed.

Naruto watched him apprehensively, slurping his noodles. "Is there a reason that you're here?"

"Yeah." He jerked an imposing thumb towards himself. "I'm here to take you on a training mission!"

Naruto blinked, and then frowned, placing his bowl down. "A training mission?" That sounded a little complicated. "I mean, what is my ANBU team gonna say to that? I can't just up a leave them. And I don't want to go on a training mission with you anyway! The last time you promised to show me something cool, you taught me how to summon a frog."

"_Toad." _Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "And yes, that's true. But this time, I swear I'll teach you a cool technique."

Naruto chewed thoughtfully. "I wouldn't mind learning something like the Chidori…"

"I'll teach you something better!" Jiraiya promised.

Naruto watched him skeptically, as Jiraiya mentally pleaded for the boy to lose a little common sense and just come with him. The last thing he needed was for Naruto to start throwing a loud fit where the Akatsuki could hear him.

The blonde seemed to think about it, before agreeing. "Okay, let's go."

Jiraiya mentally cheered.

"Ah—hold on," For a moment, the blonde seemed to be in a completely different world, before hesitantly returning to his home planet. "Actually, could you give me an hour or two to get ready? It won't take long?"

"An hour?" Jiraiya grumbled under his breath, rubbing the back of his head. Jeez…what kind of ninja took that long to pack? "Sure, I guess…"

"Okay!" Naruto leapt up. "I'll meet you at the Northern gates in an hour!"

"Meet you there." Jiraiya nodded.

After the Toad Sannin had left, Naruto whirled on Kyuubi.

"_So what's the big issue?" _He asked the fox, who had been restless in the back of his mind since Jiraiya had announced the training trip.

"_Someone's here, Naruto." _The urgency to the fox's usual laconic, goading tones made anxiety coil in Narutos gut.

Naruto gulped, hurrying along faster. _"What do you mean, someone? And why do you sound so freaked out?"_

"_No one good." _Replied Kyuubi. _"Hurry, and do as the pathetic human tells you."_

"_You want me to go on that training trip?" _Naruto echoed incredulously. _"You're kidding. Why?" _And then, darkly. _"What are your motives?"_

"_Believe me when I say I have our best interests at heart." _Kyuubi scoffed. _"The question of whether you are strong enough to face these adversaries or not isn't an issue at present—you're not. I may have been attempting to train your weak human body—_

"_Hey!"_

"—_as diligently as possible, but it would only be detrimental for our general well being for these intruders to be aware of our…. Connection."_

"_So stop talking to you?"_

"_Stop allowing me to use your body." _Corrected Kyuubi. _"For now, at any rate. Speak of our connection to no one; especially those who don't already know. Leave quickly and keep your guard up…"_

The demon trailed off.

"_They have come for you."_

And Naruto sure didn't like the sound of that.

.

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y

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* * *

_phew! lots of pairings recommended. I think the better idea would be to split it all up, maybe i'll do a poll or something. ah itachi and kisame are coming up (: this is always fun. _


	11. Who Stole The Tarts?

_all my shit on my computer got erased because, as usual, i'm having mac problems. this is the third mac. motherfuckkkerrr someone shoot steve jobs. why do i have all apple and nothing works? anyway. i just belted this shit out so... not betad, prolly lots of mistakes. ah, well. _

* * *

**s**_y_n_c__**h**_**r**_o_**n**i_**ci**__t_**y**

.

_come on baby, _

**_DONT FEAR THE REAPER_**

**_._**

But just because he didn't like the sound of it, didn't mean he liked the journey any better.

It could have been marginally more acceptable had he not been plodding along the dirt road with what could possibly be the most perverted man in existence, gawking syrupy gazes to the hems of every passing girl's skirt. Not to mention that he could very well be their grandfather. Naruto could do little else aside from roll his eyes—roll them, and look around wearily for whatever sign of trouble Kyuubi had been warning him of.

Though there was little else on the trail, aside from birds, girls, and the occasional old man with his walking stick.

"You were serious about that whole training thing, right?"

"That's right." Jiraiya answered, looking like he clearly wasn't paying attention. No, it was all used up on the brunette walking by them.

Naruto scowled. "So why aren't we training yet?"

"Be patient, kid." The old man had the gall to pat his back patronizingly. "Wait till we get to the city. _Trust _me, I've got only good things coming for you."

_Yeah, _Naruto thought, irritably, _the last time I trusted you, you threw me off a fifty-foot cliff. _Fat chance of that.

What was even more concerning, aside from Jiraiya and his questionable ways, was the echoing silence that was usually replaced by Kyuubi's snide, ill-meaning remarks. Naruto couldn't remember the last time he had spent almost thirty minutes without any sort of berating, mean-spirited comment.

Finally, it ended up being too much for the blonde, all the worrying, and all the anxiety—"Hey, come on perverted Sennin Let's get started with the training."

Jiraiya huffed. "What did I say about patience…? Anyway, don't get too fired up. We still need to gather information about Tsunade. There's really not much of a point in training before we do so."

Naruto blinked. "Gather information?" He repeated, slowly. Who was Tsunade?

He hadn't even realized that the craggy, rocky scenery had given way to an enormous cavern in the stone, roped around with metal railings and the walls chiseled with long stair cases into the bustling city in the canyon.

"This is the town!" Said the Sannin, with a wide wave.

Naruto gave an appreciative nod. It wasn't anything as great as Suna, the twinkling town that stood unwaveringly in the desert, but had he not been so well traveled already he may have been completely taken aback by this city's beauty.

Jiraiya led him down the winding stairs and into the ebbing sea of flowing crowds. "This will be a break before training starts," Jiraiya began with a chuckle and a smile. "Until the festival is over." He added.

"Alright." Naruto nodded. Jiraiya had only confirmed his suspicions—the old man probably didn't have anything to teach him at all, he was just using this ruse as a ploy to lure Naruto willingly out of the city without any questions. But who had set Jiraiya up to take him?

Was the Sandaime aware?

"Catch you later, then!" Naruto called, before abruptly darting off. As he wiggled around through the crowd, he sneaked a peek behind him. The Sannin wasn't following him. If he was supposed to be watching him, he certainly wasn't doing a very good job. Not with his distracted attention, darting to the shortest skirt and the biggest cleavage, anyway.

The blonde wandered around a little more, wondering if it was possible that whoever was after him would look at all these people and decide it wasn't worth it. Without all that orange, he blended in pretty evenly. Maybe not, then.

"_I wouldn't count on that."_

Naruto's eyes widened, before quickly narrowing in surprise. "I thought you weren't supposed to talk to me?"

"_No. No one is supposed to know of your _connection. _I stopped talking to you for a brief respite to think without your constant useless—_

"Hey!"

"_At any rate," _The demon harrumphed. _"It's not a matter of if they will catch you, but when."_

"How would you know?" Naruto scoffed, crossing his arms as he childishly shook his head, even though Kyuubi clearly couldn't see it. "I have gotten stronger y'know. Maybe not as strong as you—

"_And not nearly as strong as them." _Kyuubi cut him off heedlessly.

"But if I can't fight them off, and I can't _run _from them either, then why are we here?" Naruto questioned irritably. "And who are they anyway? Why do you know about them? Does _Jiraiya _know about them? How do you—

"_I will answer your questions…" _The Kyuubi began, as Naruto perked up. _"In due time." _Only to deflate again.

Liar! He wanted to shout, though something told him his demonic alter ego had already stopped listening.

The crowd grew and waxed around him like schools of busy fish, the demon boy with lemon colored hair standing stunningly still among the sea of bright balloons and sparkling fireworks. He hadn't felt frustration like this since he had been a little boy struggling against an oppression he didn't understand. How was it possible that the more he knew, the less he understood?

_I wouldn't be feeling this way if Kyuubi would just give me some goddamn answers. _Naruto thought, bitterly. But the king of demons was unwaveringly apathetic to his cause.

.

.

.

Yamato frowned at Kakashi's stupid potted plant, wondering how in the hell the lazy Jounin managed to keep that thing alive when Yamato himself couldn't seem to make anything grow. A tad ironic, considering his impressive mokuton repertoire. But with just a bit of soil, a seed and some water and sun, Yamato seemed to fail at coaxing long organic limbs to sprout from the ground naturally.

Asuma gave aloud sigh as he scrunched himself into Kakashi's chair, looking quite compressed in the small room. Gai had taken one of the stools, and the two of them had done littler else but look painfully guiltily at Kakashi's sleeping form for the majority of the time they'd spent since getting him into bed.

"It's not your fault." He repeated again, to the both of them, letting go of one of Mr. Ikki's leaves to turn to face his fellow Jounin. "Kakashi had made his decision."

"If you're trying to make us feel any better, it's not really working." Asuma pointed out with a face that could have made puppies cry.

Yamato only shrugged, seating himself on the edge of Kakashi's bed. "I'm only stating the truth. The two of you did well. And what's in the past is in the past. To be frank, I'm less concerned over Kakashi—we all know he's been through worse—and more with Naruto."

"They still haven't found him."

The three looked abruptly to the window, where a graceful pair of feet dropped soundlessly onto the windowsill. There was a long flow of aubergine hair as Yugao ducked under the window, a stern look to her face and a confidence to her countenance. Yamato gave her a lingering look. Outwardly, she looked composed. The ANBU captain doubted the inside was the same.

"So you've received word?" Asked Asuma.

"Of a sort. It appears Jiraiya seems to have taken him out of the village for a… 'unspecified training mission'. Of course, he neglects to tell Naruto's team." Spoke Yugao wryly, dropping into the room with ease and seating herself on Kakashi's desk. If Asuma had thought it crowded before, it was about to get overwhelming.

"At least he's safe." Yamato protested weakly.

"Safe?" Yugao snorted, clearly thinking differently. The ANBU crossed her arms. "As if he could be any safer surrounded by a village full of high-ranked ninja, all still in the village after the Chuunin attack, and even more so, _his team_!"

"Don't forget that all those high-ranked ninja are busy fixing this village, which was recently proven _very _unsafe after the invasion, not to mention the fact that our village is Hokage-less?"

Koga's head swung into view from the top of the window, arms crossed over his chest as he peered at them all from his vantage upside down.

"How are you doing that if you've broken your leg?" Yugao accused, ignoring him entirely.

"Ah, well…" Koga rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It's not _really _broken—

Yugao's gaze sharpened, and she looked as if she had a few choice words for her teammate before Asuma cut her off. "Still, it's serious that he would enter a crowded village like that. Even if there weren't a lot of Jounin around, it's not exactly easy to get away with something like that. "

"And in this village," Yamato spoke up. "Naruto is easily recognizable. It wouldn't be too hard for him to find him—

"Shh!" Gai cut him off abruptly, making erratic waves to the door, which ceased as it creaked open.

Sasuke blinked at the crowded room. He'd always sort of assumed that Kakashi was a hermit, but as six pairs of eyes—one of them upside down—swiveled onto him he realized that it wasn't the case.

"Why is Kakashi sleeping?" He asked immediately, walking into the room anxiously, unsure of what to do with so many high classed ninja gathered. He immediately recognized three of them to be from Naruto's ANBU team. "And why is everyone here?"

The woman leaning against Kakashi's desk opened her mouth, as if to answer him, but was cut off by a loud clattering as someone sprinted up the stairs.

Sasuke deftly moved to the left as the door was slammed wide open by a panting man with glasses a Chuunin vest slung over his shoulders.

"Is the story that Itachi has returned really true?-!"

The young Uchiha felt his heart stop, right in his throat as if had wedged itself up there, letting the rest of his body cool into an icy numbness. His shock was almost incomprehensible, even over Gai's incessant blubbering that _no, that wasn't the case, you moron—_

But it only got worse.

"And that he is chasing Naruto?-!" The Chuunin ended, before finally staring down the elephant in the room that everyone had been silently pleading for him to see.

"…Oh…"

"Idiot." Yugao muttered as Gai slapped a hand to his face.

But Sasuke didn't even register any of it. In fact, he bolted right past the Chuunin, knocking him over in the process and literally jumped down the staircase, uncaring of Gai calling after him.

Itachi.

Itachi had been here.

_Chasing Naruto._

"_Katsu_." Yugao snarled viscously, sliding out of her position on Kakashi's desk to knock Koga out of the way of the window. "Couldn't you have at least _looked _before you spill village secrets to a room full of people?"

"I—I'm sorry!" The Chuunin flushed. "I… I didn't see him."

"The damage is already done." Yamato admonished lightly, ever the peacemaker. "Though I doubt Sasuke-kun will manage to get very far. I'm sure it's fine."

"And if he does?" Asuma challenged. "You may be underestimating him. If he finds Itachi now I can only imagine what the outcome will be."

"Another dead Uchiha." Yugao snorted. No one else seemed to find it anywhere near funny.

"It's very possible." Said Yamato, in all seriousness. "Yugao, I'd like for you to—

"I'm already on it." The woman interrupted, diving out the window and onto the street below.

There was no sign of the younger Uchiha anywhere.

The purple-haired ANBU sighed.

"Goddammit."

.

.

.

The blonde mulled around a bit more, scuffing his feet on the pavement as the festivities eventually were brought to a slow ebbing tide of stragglers haggling for the last takoyaki. It wasn't long until he saw Jiraiya, looking like he'd already had a few drinks and prowling about the street, as if looking for prey.

"Toad Sennin!" He called aloud, and the grey-haired man whirled around, face pinkish and beaming.

"There you are kid!" He waved with a grin. "This is where we're staying."

It didn't look to fancy. In fact, it looked a little gross. This only put Naruto more on edge as they entered the hotel to find an unnervingly beautiful woman fluffing her hair in the dingy foyer. Jiraiya's mouth dropped open, and Naruto's palm hit his face.

"My pulse has sped up!" Said the Sannin gleefully. "Naruto!"

The blonde turned, exasperated. "Huh."

"Here's the room key." Jiraiya tossed it to him, making his way over to the woman who was giving him such a clear vantage point of her cleavage that Naruto thought she might actually be hiding a mountain in there. "Go up to your room and refine your chakra…. As training."

Even if Naruto wanted to protest—and he did, though he doubted it would be of much use—he couldn't, anyway, for Jiraiya had already rushed to the other side of the room, blatantly sprawling against the counter and diving into what seemed to be a really droll conversation.

"He could at least _try _to maintain the actual cover." Naruto scoffed. At the very least, a training week could have given him something to work on if he wasn't doing missions, even if it was just a cover up. This—this was just annoying.

The blonde sprawled onto the bed, after trekking all the way up to his room. It was small, and even if he did meditate he doubted it would do him any good. He was so clearly terrible at it that Kyuubi didn't ever bother trying to get him to 'refine' his chakra that way.

His eyes lingered on the ceiling.

…Maybe he could walk around up there and set traps for Jiraiya when he got back. Maybe that would teach the stupid pervert a lesson—

The knock surprised him so much that Naruto actually jolted upright onto the bed.

He was irritated at first. How could someone get ditched so fast? But even Naruto had noticed something amiss. He hadn't even heard Jiraiya come up, even though the blonde had made such a clatter on the rickety stairs and flooring that he could have possibly woken the whole hotel up. How could a already half shitfaced Jiraiya manage to do it so silently—and quickly, for that matter?

The blonde narrowed his eyes, feeling his heart skip a beat.

Naruto schooled his features into a frown, brows furrowed, as he put his hand on the cold metal.

A breath, and then he wrenched it open.

The didn't look all that remarkable, surprisingly. Naruto's imaginative, if not a tad wild mind had conjured his assailants to be weird, shadowy like creatures, his vast conscious creating a monster far worse then the reality from the fear of fear itself.

He had a small, slight nose to the smooth contours of his cheeks and an almost unnoticeably pointed chin, all of the features dwarfed by the set of the red eyes. There was nothing particularly significant to his face, nor his slight, lean build. In fact, he looked so clearly human Naruto almost breathed a sigh of relief. Almost, if not for the building, _unnatural _feeling taking place in his gut.

But Naruto had never felt anything like this before.

It was the eyes that took to him the most.

The Sharingan eyes.

He had enough time to recognize the swirling tomoe and think of Sasuke, before he was abruptly pulled out of his own head.

"Could this kid really be the Kyuubi?" His partner guffawed, the door opening to reveal there were two of them.

Itachi's eyes lingered on the sunny mop of blonde hair. Surprisingly, the Uchiha noted the lack of recognition in the boy's impassive features. Actually, there wasn't an expression at all.

"Naruto-kun." The man in the cloak murmured. "We would like you to come with us."

Even more surprising, the blonde exited his room quietly, standing with them in the hallway and looking up with unnerving blue eyes.

"Itachi-san." The fish-featured man turned to his partner. "It's time we get started… We don't need him running around—we should cut off a leg."

Even more impressive, Naruto's lack of features at Kisame's grandiose, if not a little unnecessary threat. Perhaps Leader had been right. There _was _something different to the boy.

Of course, neither of the two assassins were aware that Naruto's body wasn't even being controlled by anyone at all, which would have adeptly explained his lack of reaction to what normally would have caused at least some sort of apprehension. At the moment, Naruto was struggling for control against a towering nine tailed demon in the broken jail cell of his own mind.

"_You're making a mistake, you insolent fool!" _Kyuubi yowled at him, as the blonde used sheer will to hold him in. _"They're out to kill you."_

"_I _know!"Naruto repeated, for what could possibly be the umpteenth time. "_Just give me a minute!"_

"_You don't have a minute boy!" _The demon interrupted valiantly. _"Do you have any idea how dangerous these two—_

But Naruto had successfully reached consciousness, blinking rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the dim, wan lighting of the hallway.

Itachi's eyes flickered to the blonde once more. Ah—there. A mouth, parting open, and irises fluttering with movement. There was a frank veracity to the blonde's winsor blue eyes, a mulish fearlessness that seemed to overrule everything else about him.

"Who are you?" Came the question, hurriedly out of the boy's mouth.

"I am Uchiha Itachi." A faint look of recognition set Itachi at ease. Emotions so easily perceived would only make him easier to handle. "This is Hoshigaki Kisame."

Then came the wariness, a crouch to his sturdy stance and an apprehensive line to his mouth. "And… why are you here for me?"

"To take you with us." Itachi answered swiftly.

_Well no shit, _Naruto wanted to point out to him. _I could have told you that. _The whole point of fighting off Kyuubi in the first place was to see if any of these two would give him better answers as to what the hell was going on then the fox that was supposed to be on his side. Though, admittedly, Naruto was smarter then to think that the demon really had his best interests at heart.

But regardless, it looked like these two weren't forfeiting any answers.

"But _why_?" Naruto stressed, clearly frustrated. "Because of the demon?"

"Yes."

"What's so special about him?" Naruto narrowed his eyes. "What do you want with him?"

"His power." Kisame snorted. Itachi gave him a sidelong look.

"What's so great about it?"

"That's none of your concern." The Uchiha's voice was low and soft, but Naruto wasn't in the least fooled by his calming demeanor. Out of the two of them, the blonde would bet money that he was the stronger, more cunning of the pair.

"What are you going to do with me? Where are we going to go? When can I—

"Look, Leader-sama can answer all your questions when you—

"Leader-sama?" Naruto cut off. "So there's more of you?" And then, to himself, _So there's more of them. _And, with dread; _and they're organized. _The worst kind.

Itachi gave his partner a sharp, sidelong glance. Kisame seemed to realize his mistake, letting Naruto's question drift unanswered in the stale air of the stone shaft.

Itachi would privately admit to himself he was more then a little astonished by the boy's lack of fear. If anything, he almost looked annoyed. Not to mention the relentless questioning. Such a fair amount of curiosity was almost the exact opposite of the reports they'd received of a stubborn, easily fooled blonde Gennin.

"There's something he wants with Kyuubi… something for his power…" The blonde murmured, more to himself then to his companions. A thought clicked together in his brain, as he thought of Gaara, another Jinchuuriki. "And the other demons…" The boy whispered, looking between the two of them with frightening clarity.

"You're collecting the demons."

Itachi's face was a façade of stone, but Kisame had what could have been surprise to his features. Surprised that the blonde had managed to figure it out.

Naruto could have figured more to his stunning revelations, had Kyuubi not taken the break in his will power to wrench Naruto out of his consciousness, leaving the demon to deal with the two Akatsuki members.

Neither of the two had much warning, just an instant in which Naruto's expression seemed to still, until it masked into indifferent once more.

With a swift kick to the head, Kyuubi managed to use the element of surprise to knock Kisame into the wall. At least Naruto had done something worthwhile—getting them to let their guard down to a impertinent twelve year old kid. Though the demon didn't appreciate his questions, nor his apparent quick wit. Who knew the blonde was so smart? Maybe he should have paid more attention to that.

The demon used the quick moment with Kisame incapacitated to lock eyes with the Uchiha,

There was a brief second in which Kyuubi savored the burning sensation searing through Naruto's retinas. Thankfully the boy had managed to awaken the Sharingan, though he possessed no latent ability for it. But Kyuubi's chakra, and therefore the Juubi's, had entered into his system, and the Sharingan had always been _his. _Not Madara's, nor that stupid sage's.

He got the reaction he'd been hoping for.

Itachi's eyes widened at the sight of the blood red irises, tomoe making their slow swim in the blonde's eyes. _Impossible—_

Out of reaction, his Mangekyou bloomed in reflex, dropping them both into the realm of Tsukiyomi.

But not his Tsukiyomi.

The moon was broken into pieces among a black, starless sky. It hung crooked and heavy, long razor teeth carved as it crumbled in its grave. The world was red in contrast to the dark atmosphere, a bowl of blood that seemed to stretch endlessly. And a boy with wild, lemon colored hair staring at him with ten-tomoe eyes.

"You can't break it." Said Naruto. Though it was not Naruto. Naruto did not have a complex, fully evolved Sharingan, nor did he have scissor-teeth and knife-fingers.

The moon? The Uchiha wondered.

"Tsukiyomi." The blonde replied.

"You're not Naruto." Itachi said, needlessly, speaking aloud this time.

"I am the Juubi." Answered the demon, hiding in Naruto's skin.

"No." Itachi denied. The straw colored hair, lightly freckled tan skin and small, bony little hands. "You are the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox."

"Perhaps for now." The demon admitted, grudgingly. "But soon I will reclaim my rightful place—_my rightful body._"

Why was he here? Telling him this? What purpose did this demon have for bringing him into this dreamlike illusion? Itachi narrowed his eyes. "I will not help you."

And the demon smiled.

"I was not requesting you to."

There was no emotion to the Uchiha's face. The demon continued to smile.

And then, after a moment of silence. "Why have you revealed yourself to me?"

"Because you are Uchiha." It explained. "And all Uchiha belong to me."

Tsukiyomi crumbled to dust around him, taking the broken moon and the unwavering, inhuman Naruto with it. A figure caught his eye in the everlasting distance, and he turned to look, even as the dream collapsed. A boy with star-eyes and a pale face was watching him from across the red-baked world. A boy with a small, slight nose to the smooth contours of his cheeks and an almost unnoticeably pointed chin, all of the features dwarfed by the set of luminescent eyes. The stars from the sky must have gone there, then, Itachi thought, though he knew as he resurfaced to consciousness that this made no sense.

He took another look at the boy, as the world crumbled around him. At his slightly pointed chin, and little nose.

_Sasuke._

"Uchiha Itachi…"

An illusion? For a moment, Itachi could not tell what was reality and what had been only an obscure warped perception of a world that didn't exist. No. This was Sasuke. Sasuke with a little nose and a slightly pointed chin, with high cheekbones from his mother, whereas Itachi's favored his father's. Sasuke with dark charcoal eyes and a deep, burning hatred, nothing but the loathing in his eyes as he stilled in the gloom of the hallway.

Kisame pulled himself out of the rubble of the hole in the wall, stumbling into the dust and debris to see Itachi's kid brother standing behind them.

"_I WILL KILL YOU!" _Sasuke roared, looking his brother straight in the eye. The elder of the two met his gaze coolly.

"A sharingan?" The fish man mused aloud, rubbing his sore neck and giving that stupid blonde kid a withering look. Shoulda just cut off the legs in the first place… "You seem to be familiar with Itachi. Who is this guy anyway?"

Itachi's eyes stayed on his younger brother's form for only a moment, a confusing amount of relief at seeing the loathing in the young boy's eyes. The loathing in the Sharingan, not the impassivity in the stars.

"He is… my younger brother." He explained flatly.

Kisame hummed. "I head that the whole Uchiha clan was wiped out…"

His eyes strayed back to the boy, who had began to shake and grow pale, before turning back to the stone of Itachi's face.

"By you."

But the elder Uchiha was not worrying over Sasuke, nor over Kisame so obviously goading his younger sibling on. Out of amusement, perhaps. There was nothing amusing to be found in this dusty, fluorescent hallway. Itachi's eyes never once left Naruto's. They were blue, a startling, brilliant stratosphere of blue. If there was a demon inside him, it only lingered in the lines on his cheeks.

Kyuubi nimbly stepped out of the way, just as Sasuke howled in anger, electricity running up his arm as he bodily lunged at his elder brother. The lightning scraped against the wall, leaving destruction at its wake—

And blew an enormous hole clear through three walls, leaving a plume of dirt and dust to rise into the air; a silent wraith around them.

The chidori hadn't hit anything, and Itachi held Sasuke's wrist in a death grip, the hand useless with the ulna and radius broken.

Kyuubi stood against the wall, watching indifferently. Naruto felt the dispassionate sincerity the demon was feeling at the display, and realized with a jolting start that _Kyuubi wasn't going to do anything. _No, he was just going to stand there, Sasuke for slaughter at the hands of his murdering elder brother.

In hindsight, Naruto realized that it had been much to easy to shake off Kyuubi's grip on his conscious.

He hit Kisame square in the face with a roundhouse kick—sending the unsuspecting missing-nin into the wall once again, and turned ferociously to Itachi. For a slight second, the man actually looked stunned by the fierce expression on his face, enough for Naruto to actually surprise him into dropping Sasuke's wrist in order to parry his katana.

Maybe not the best idea, as the Uchiha proved to be a much more formidable sword-fighter then the novice blonde was. Though what he lacked in skill he made up for in ingenuity. The next ten seconds were spent mostly with Naruto cleverly ducking around the Uchiha's blade or dexterously going for an offensive of his own.

Although he definitely wouldn't have been able to last much longer, had Jiraiya, finally, _miraculously _showed up.

"You don't seem to know very much about me…" The Sannin drawled, unexpectedly parrying a strike for him. "I'm better at getting girls then they are at trying to get me." Naruto peered up, noting the woman slung over the man's shoulder. "Even though it doesn't look like it. It's… my specialty."

Naruto could have groaned, had he not been in such compromising position.

Jiraiya pushed Itachi off his own sword—though Naruto thought that the Uchiha may have just let him do so—the missing-nin warily taking a step back, Kisame getting up once more as well.

"I, Jiraiya, am the epitome of manliness!" He cried aloud. Naruto wondered who exactly he was convincing. "I will fall for no woman's feminine wiles! When you're someone like me—you only have to flash that sexiness and women fall to your feet!"

This time, Naruto really didn't bother holding it in.

"Oh yeah?-! That girl just _winked _at you and you were scampering after her! And now you're trying to lok all cool and classy—you pervy Sennin!"

"Hey!" Jiraiya roared, the girl on his shoulder all but forgotten as she flopped off and onto the floor. "Can't you stop calling that in front of others?"

Kisame and Itachi's opinion of the man was a moot point at this rate, considering he'd already made a fool of himself enough with his outrageous claims of attractiveness.

"How can that stupid boy be so hard to—

Naruto blinked, as Yugao's form came out of the dust from the hole in the wall.

"Yugao!" He cried, looking up at her.

She looked down. "So you're safe." She surmised, before turning to the two missing-nin.

"Picking on a twelve year old." The woman snorted, unsheathing her wakazashi. "Some big bad guys you are."

"B—But what are you doing here?" He titled his head up at her, curiously.

The woman with orchid colored hair only jerked to Sasuke, opposite them in the hallway and kneeling with his wrist in his hand. "I was meant to keep an eye on him." And then, with a frustrating look. "But I lost him in the crowd."

"You won't get Naruto." Jiraiya was saying to the two Akatsuki members. Yugao and Naruto stilled their conversation, looking curiously at the Sannin.

Itachi's face was expressionless, but his gaze was unnerving and hadn't left Naruto once. Frustratingly Naruto wondered what Kyuubi had done in the few minutes he'd taken control. "Why not?"

"Because you two will die by my hands." Jiraiya explained, seriously. Naruto wondered how in the hell the two of them were _actually _taking this guy seriously. He certainly hadn't made the best impression, and yet the two of them were warily standing back.

"Don't do it."

The words brought Naruto out of his reverie.

Sasuke had clamored to his feet, looking angrier then previously and out for blood. Whose blood, no one really had to guess.

"This guy…" He stood then. "_Is Mine_."

Naruto said nothing at all, only blinking, mouth open in surprise. He'd never seen such emotion in the boy—ever. Nothing but this intense hatred for his brother.

And Itachi did nothing at all, his Sharingan still piercing the blonde's blue eyes. Their gaze met, accidentally, and Naruto couldn't pull them away, even as the man replied, "I have absolutely no interest in you right now."

The three of them, certainly, could take out the two of these guys, S-Class Missing-nin or no, but Sasuke alone…?

"Naruto—" The blonde looked away from Itachi to his younger brother, startled. "I told you don't do it!"

The blonde blinked, recognition in his eyes as he noted the feral rasp to Sasuke's voice. The seal crawling up his arm in a burning pattern.

"_This fight is mine._"

Before anyone could move, Itachi was standing in front of his younger brother, his dark black cloak covering the boy from view. He could have been a ghost, standing so still.

"_COME ON!-!" _

But before Sasuke could even move, Itachi abruptly brought his fist into Sasuke's stomach, pinning him into the wall and breaking through plaster and stone. Sasuke choked. Kisame tutted. "No mercy at all."

Sasuke let out a wail, Itachi pinning him to the wall. "Itachi—I advise you against using your eye so many times in a single day…" Said the fish amiably, and Itachi dropped Sasuke to the floor. There, the boy seemed to have lost consciousness, shivering and curled into a ball. The worst was the expressionless face, the boy lying limp on the ground.

Naruto snarled. "You _assholes_!"

He leapt at them, blade in hand, getting as far as leaping over Kisame's giant sword and lunging and Itachi before the walls, ceiling, and floor morphed around them.

And behind him, Jiraiya yelling; "_Ninpou Gama Guchi Shibari!-!"_

Though Naruto hadn't any idea what was going on, nor the soft, squishy texture that was sticking to his feet was, Kisame and Itachi seemed to both recognize it.

"Too bad Itachi… Kisame…" Jiraiya drawled. "You are already inside my stomach!"

"Black magic to summon the esophagus of the giant toad from Myouki Mountain Rock Inn… You wanted criminals, hope you enjoy being food to Iwagama!"

"Wha…" Naruto struggled, attempting to release his feet. Why was it attacking him too?-! "What the hell is this?"

"It's just Jiraiya-sama's Jutsu!" Yugao called out to him, looking the epitome of calm as she stood on the surface, her feet sinking into the gummy surface. "Don't worry!"

_Don't worry? _Naruto repeated glumly in his head. Yeah right. This stupid floor was sucking his chakra—he could feel it.

"Kisame!" Itachi barked sharply. "Come!"

The man broke out of the sticky floor, following Itachi, who had managed to do the same. The two broke into a run, turning the corner. Naruto looked to Jiraiya, but the man wasn't following them. Instead he clasped his hands to the ground.

"No one leaves my awareness!" Jiraiya smirked.

But his arrogant expression was wiped clean off his face as a rumble shook the entire hallway, now turned giant toad stomach. "What the—?-!" Jiraiya jumped to his feet, rushing to the other hall. Naruto did the same, after fighting to get the gunk off his feet.

He turned the corner, only to see pitch black flames eating away at the stomach lining. "They're gone…" He blinked at the sunlight pouring in from the gaping hole. But what was that technique? He'd never seen such black flames like that.

.

.

.

"Why is a retreat necessary for _you_?" Kisame asked, as the two bounded out into the sunlight.

"Well, if it is true about Naruto…" The Uchiha panted. "Then there is no need to be hasty." Though the man doubted anything they had learned about the blonde was true at all. Not after what he had seen in his mind.

"Also, my body must be rested for a while…" He was already feeling the toll of using his eyes too many times, not to mention already too confused over what Naruto had done. But how could the blonde have had knowledge of his Tsukiyomi? How could he have used the moon illusion for his own? Having a Sharingan, a _fully evolved _eternal Mangekyou Sharingan like that…

It shouldn't have even been possible.

And yet in the room, in the world outside of illusion, the blonde seemed human—rash, stubborn, eager to help his friend. Exactly what the scrolls had said about him.

"As it is," The Uchiha continued on, regardless of the turmoil he was feeling. "We shouldn't use Tsukiyomi until it becomes Amaterasu."

.

.

.

"This isn't ordinary fire." Naruto pointed out, eying the flames close up. "I'd say it's almost black…

"Don't get any closer!"

Naruto pulled away, reluctantly.

Jiraiya whipped out a scroll, looking like he was going to seal the fire into it, and Naruto backed off. He turned around, to where Yugao was hoisting Sasuke onto her shoulder. It was odd to see the woman in battle without her ANBU mask on. Admittedly, she looked just as formidable with it on as she did with it off. Naruto could hardly say the same thing for himself.

"Where are you taking him?" He asked, just as he heard Jiraiya call the fire into his seal.

Yugao adjusted the boy more comfortably. "Yamato-taichou asked me to tail the boy." She explained. "But by the time I caught up to him he was already ducking around this stupid town, and I couldn't find him."

Naruto blinked at the form of his friend, now a limp package on Yugao's slim shoulder.

Jiraiya walked up to them, snapping the scroll shut. Naruto wanted to wipe that stupid smile clean off his face. "Well, everyone all right here?"

Naruto and Yugao both gave him a deadpan look.

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head. "Well…"

He didn't get any farther, as there was suddenly a loud cry, _"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"_

Naruto's mouth dropped open as Maito Gai crashed through the window, delivering a decisive kick straight to Jiraiya's face.

"Huh?" The man blinked as he landed, sending Jiraiya crashing onto the floor.

The man rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh no! Sorry for the direct attack—I was in a rush using my forehead protector as a mirror and I didn't mean it…. Hahaha…"

"You didn't do it on purpose?" Jiraiya didn't look like he believed that for one moment. "You moron!"

But Gai only continued to laugh.

"Why don't we get out of here?" Yugao drawled. "This kid needs to get to a hospital. Looks like he fractured a rib—and whatever Itachi did to him, he's lost all his senses."

Gai nodded. "Kakashi was also hit by the same Jutsu. He's still in bed until his senses return to normal."

"Kakashi-sense?-!" Naruto looked up in surprise, fear growing in his stomach. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine." Yugao assured him, before turning to Gai. "Let's go, then?"

Jiraiya nodded. "You two do that." Then he motioned to Naruto. "We're going to search for someone."

"Someone?" Naruto echoed.

"She is one of the three-nin, like me." Jiraiya explained.

Gai blinked. "This person… could you be talking about…"

Jiraiya nodded ."Tsunade."

.

**d **o **n **t **l **o **o **k **a **w **a **y

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_So the dialogue in this chapter, well, I try to keep it IC which generally means straight from my manga, and I was reading them and I was like.. "who says this stuff aloud like that?" but whatevs man, if Kishi wants to have his characters sound like creeps he can go right ahead. sorry its so boring :) but it'll get better soon. _

_reviews feed my dying soul...hahah.._


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